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Another MDC MP arrested, this time for playing anti Mugabe song

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Violet Gonda
31 July 2009

Another MDC legislator has been arrested for allegedly playing a song that
denigrates Robert Mugabe, on his car radio. The MDC said in a statement that
Stewart Garadhi, the MP for Chinhoyi, was driving from Harare to Chinhoyi on
Friday morning when he was stopped by police officers 'who accused him of
playing the song - Nharembozha - saying it denigrated President Robert
Mugabe.' He is being held at Chinhoyi police provincial headquarters.

At the time of broadcast it was not clear how the police heard the song if
the MP had been driving at the time. A commentator remarked: "Were they in
the car, or do they have fantastically large ears that can hear a song from
a distance? It sounds like a case of the long ear of the law!"

Several people including members of the general public have been arrested
under the country's harsh security laws for 'making utterances likely to
cause hatred, contempt or ridicule of the President and his Office.'

It's reported 'Nharembozha' or Mobile Phone is a song on an MDC campaign CD.
Newzimbabwe.com said: "One song on the CD which arguably makes reference to
Mugabe says: Saddam (Hussein) is gone now and Bob is the only one left."
Last year four activists from the Youth Forum were arrested in Bikita for
playing the same CD. Police said the music was likely to 'provoke ZANU PF
supporters.'

Meanwhile, there are at least 8 MDC MPs including a Deputy Minister who have
been arrested and some of them convicted in recent weeks, following the
formation of the inclusive government in February. Deputy Youth Minister
Thamsanqa Mahlangu, who was arrested on Tuesday on allegations of stealing a
cell phone, will remain in custody until August 13th, after the State
opposed bail on Friday. Harare Magistrate Kudakwashe Njerambini had granted
the MDC official and his personal assistant bail of US$50 each, but the
State invoked a section of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, to
oppose bail.

The MDC has accused ZANU PF of trying to whittle down its parliamentary
majority by arresting some of its members.  Several MDC MPs are also
appearing in court facing allegations of abusing a government farming inputs
scheme. One of the MPs, Ernest Mudavanhu of Zaka North has since been
convicted and was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

But on Friday, another MDC MP Ransome Makamure (Gutu East) was acquitted of
the corruption charges after a Harare Magistrate threw out evidence
submitted by State witness Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba.
Nyikayaramba was the Chairman of the farming logistics subcommittee.

The MDC statement said it was discovered during the trial that when they
were given the agricultural inputs last year the Brigadier General only
advised MPs from ZANU PF on how the inputs scheme worked. The Brigadier is
said to have 'threatened one of his subordinates, Major Mapuranga who was
also a witness in the trial, for giving evidence that absolved Makamure of
any wrongdoing.' Furthermore, the army had told the court that Makamure had
committed the offence in October, but had claimed they only started the
input scheme and the guidelines of distribution in November of last year.


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Mahlangu granted bail but remains in jail

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=20472

July 31, 2009

By Raymond Maingire

HARARE - Jailed Deputy Youth Minister, Thamsanqa Mahlangu was on Friday
granted bail by a Harare magistrate's court but will spend seven days more
in custody after the State filed a notice to appeal against the order.

Mahlangu, who was arrested along with his aide, Malven Chadamoyo, for
alleged theft of a cell-phone, was ordered to deposit US$50 bail with the
Clerk of Court at the Harare Magistrates' Court.

He was ordered not to interfere with State witnesses or to move away from
his given address.

Meanwhile another MDC legislator Stewart Garadhi, was arrested this Friday
morning in Chinhoyi barely hours after the acquittal of yet another MDC
parliamentarian, Ransome Makamure, Gutu East, MP who faced clearly
trumped-up corruption charges.

Garadhi was travelling from Harare to Chinhoyi when he was arrested by
police from the Law and Order section who accused him of playing a song,
Nharembozha, which they allege denigrates President Robert Mugabe.

In the Mahlangu case, the State, represented by Public Mpofu, immediately
invoked the notorious Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence (CP
and E) Act which allows the Attorney-General to suspend the operation of a
court ruling for seven days.

According to the law, the State is supposed to seek permission through the
same court to file an appeal against the order in a higher court.

Mahlangu, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator for Nkulumane
constituency, was arrested on Monday on allegations of stealing a mobile
phone belonging to war veterans' leader, Joseph Chinotimba.

He and Chinotimba were among the delegates who attended a conference
convened last weekend to draw up a "national vision" for Zimbabwe for the
next three decades.

Mahlangu is said to have admitted walking out of the Harare International
Conference Centre, venue for the conference, with the cell-phone but denies
theft.

His lawyer, Charles Kwaramba, says the cell-phone, valued at US$40, was
picked up by somebody who handed it over to the legislator thinking that it
was his because he has a similar instrument.

Despite realising that it was not his phone, Mahlangu is said to have kept
it with the intention of handing it back to the organisers of the
conference.

He was further remanded to August 7, 2009 and is due to face trial on August
12, 2009.

The State on Thursday had opposed his admission to bail, claiming he was
likely to abscond because of the strength of the case against him.

But Presiding Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini ruled that the offence was too
minor to warrant any fears the minister might abscond.

In granting Mahlangu bail, Jarabini said his decision was further influenced
by the value of the phone and the fact that it had been recovered. If
convicted, Mahlangu is likely to pay a negligible amount as fine.

Meanwhile, two women who are jointly accused with him were also granted free
bail but were not freed as the State also invoked Section 121 of the
Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.

The two, Geraldine Phiri (21), who is identified as Mahlangu's girlfriend
and her friend, Patience Nyoni (27), are alleged to have been found in
possession of the phone's sim card.

Kwaramba, Mahlangu's lawyer, said the State was abusing the court process by
invoking the law on political opponents to President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu-PF.

"This is an abuse of the court process," he said.

"In fact, we are in the process of challenging Section 121 at the Supreme
Court. What kind of a law would allow someone to stand up and overrule a
court's ruling without justifying that action?

"The sad thing is that this law is only being applied on Zanu-PF's political
opponents."

The MDC says the continued arrest of its legislators is a subtle attempt by
Zanu-PF to reduce its slender parliamentary majority outside the electoral
process.

The MDC says at least seven of its legislators now face what it describes as
trumped-up charges. The number will remain at seven after the arrest of
Garadhi in Chinhoyi and the acquittal of Makamure in Masvingo.

Garadhi, who is accused by the Law and Order Section of playing a song that
allegedly denigrates the President, is currently being detained at police
provincial headquarters in Chinhoyi.

Meanwhile, Makamure who faced trumped-up charges of corruption was today
(Friday) acquitted by Magistrate William Bhila.

Bhila questioned the evidence submitted by one of the key witnesses,
Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba.

It was discovered during the trial that Nyikayaramba who is the chairman of
the farming logistics subcommittee only advised MPs from Zanu PF on how the
agricultural inputs scheme worked when they were given the inputs last year.

It also emerged that Nyikayaramba had threatened one his subordinates, a
Major Mapuranga, who was also a witness in the trial for giving evidence
that absolved Makamure of any wrongdoing.

The magistrate also questioned why the army was alleging that Makamure had
committed the offence on October 24, 2008 when the army claimed that they
only launched the input scheme and the guidelines of distribution on 4
November 2008.

Other MDC MPs are appearing in court facing allegations that they abused the
inputs scheme. One of them Ernest Mudavanhu, of Zaka North, has already been
convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

The MDC says there has been a systematic crackdown on its MPs, in recent
months as Zanu-PF seeks to decimate the party's slim majority in Parliament.
The police department falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home
Affairs. One of the co-Ministers is Giles Mutsekwa a top functionaary of the
MDC.

Meanwhile, the party's secretary-general Tendai Biti, who is the Minister of
Finance, says he received an envelope containing a bullet on Monday.


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Cautious hope for media reform as Daily News un-banned

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Alex Bell
31 July 2009

Zimbabwe's media fraternity have this week been given cause to cautiously
hope for real media reform, after the publishers of the banned Daily News
and Daily News on Sunday were approved for an operating licence.

A Special Board Committee on the Associated Newspaper of Zimbabwe publishing
group appointed by the Information Ministry in November 2007, on Wednesday
sent a letter to the company's lawyers and to the Information Minister
Webster Shamu saying the application for registration for its publications
was successful.

"This letter serves to advise you that your application for registration as
a mass media service provider was successful," the committee's acting
Chairperson, Edward Dube, wrote to the lawyers. "Associated Newspapers of
Zimbabwe is therefore advised to contact the relevant authority for their
licence," Dube added. A similar letter was also sent to Shamu.

Media rights groups have welcomed the decision, saying the way is being
paved for an active free media to operate in Zimbabwe. Pierre Ambroise from
the Africa Desk of the France based Reporters Without Borders, which has
been advocating for media freedom in Zimbabwe for several years, called the
move 'fantastic.'

"We encourage Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's government to move ahead
with plans to amend the 2002 press law, in order to eliminate draconian
articles that were used to suppress independent media," Ambroise added. "The
promised Zimbabwe Media Council must be quickly created and its members must
be guaranteed complete independence."

But the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA-Zimbabwe) on Friday said the move should be greeted cautiously.
MISA-Zimbabwe Chairman Loughty Dube said the un-banning of the Daily News
'does not give any reason for hope,' explaining that committees and councils
should not be the judge and jury of media freedom.
"As long as we have bad laws, there is no press freedom. What is needed is
an overhaul of the media laws across the board," said Dube.
MISA-Zimbabwe and other media groups have been advocating for a
self-regulatory media, arguing that political interference in any form will
not usher in media freedom. The dissolution of the restrictive Media and
Information Commission was hoped to change the media sphere in the country,
but journalists and media in general are still being restricted.
Two senior journalists were earlier this year charged with publishing
falsehoods about the detention of 18 activists, after police raided the
offices of the private weekly Zimbabwe Independent in May. The government is
also so far still ignoring a court ruling on media accreditations, and still
requires hefty fees from journalists - US$4,000 a year for Zimbabwean
reporters working for foreign media. The state media at the same time
remains tightly controlled and have a monopoly on the airwaves.
A new media commission with powers to regulate the media is still being
formed, leaving it unclear how much power it will exert. Parliament's
Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) has shortlisted 28 applicants for
public interviews next Monday to sit on the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC).
Of the 28 successful applicants, six are women, one a lawyer, Chris Mhike,
and a church minister, Useni Sibanda. Veteran journalists Henry Muradzikwa,
Kindness Paradza, Zimbabwe Union
of Journalists President Mathew Takaona, Miriam Madziwa, and Ropafadzo
Mapimhidze have also been shortlisted.

Meanwhile in an encouraging move, leading international broadcasters have
been cleared to return to Zimbabwe. The government this week gave the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the US television news channel
CNN permission to work in Zimbabwe again. The BBC has not had a media
presence in the country since its Harare correspondent, Joseph Winter, was
expelled in 2001. CNN had to pull out of Zimbabwe in 2002.
"After many years of government mistrust of international news media, the
return of these two leading international broadcasters is a decisive step in
the restoration of press freedom in Zimbabwe," Reporters Without Borders'
Ambroise said.

The decision was a result of a meeting earlier this month between
Information Minister Shamu, the BBC's world news editor, Jon Williams, and
its Africa bureau editor, Sarah Halfpenny. Shamu met CNN's Johannesburg
bureau chief, Kim Norgaard, a few days later. MISA-Zimbabwe's Dube meanwhile
said the decision to allow the BBC and CNN back into the country is a
'political' move, which has not been supported by real media reform.


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Mahoso short-listed for media commission

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=20485

July 31, 2009

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - The former chairman of the now defunct Media and Information
Commission, Dr Tafataona Mahoso, is among applicants short-listed to be
interviewed for appointment to the new Zimbabwe Media Commission.

Mahoso has become a legend in his life for the anti-west diatribe that he
propounded in prodigiously long articles churned out in the Sunday Mail over
the years in defence of President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF. More
significantly he presided over the former Media and Information Commission
as it subjected the independent press to unprecedented interference from
government under former Information Minister, Prof Jonathan Moyo.

Journalists were arrested and subjected to severe harassment while media
establishments were targetted for physical attack. Three newspapers, the
Daily News, The Daily news on Sunday and The Tribune eventually fell by the
wayside in 2003.

Interviews of the prospective commissioners are scheduled to take place in
Harare on Monday. Other notable names short-listed include those of Chris
Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe's former ambassador in Beijing and a relentless
guardian of Zanu-PF's interests and Vimbai Chivaura, a university lecturer
who is also fiercely pro-Mugabe. Also short-listed are veteran journalists
Henry Muradzikwa, who is the former editor of Ziana and The Sunday Mail and
more recently short-term director general of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Holdings, as well as veteran Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president,
Matthew Takaona. Takaona has been ZUJ president for more than 10 years.

Parliament's Standing Rules and Orders Committee says it has received over
600 applications for commissioners who will sit on four constitutional
commissions that are being established by government and will start
conducting interviews on Monday to select successful candidates.

Parliament last month invited interested candidates to submit applications
to be considered for appointment to the Zimbabwe Media Commission, the
Independent Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, four bodies that are
being set up in terms of a constitutional amendment enacted earlier this
year.

Advertisements placed in local newspapers by Parliament's Standing Rules and
Orders committee stipulated that those applying to be commissioners must be
chosen for their knowledge and experience in the field applied for.

Tongai Matutu, chairman of the Standing Rules and Orders Committee, told The
Zimbabwe Times that the Speaker had advised that over 600 people had applied
to sit on the four commissions.

The parliamentary committee sat on Monday to consider applicants that had
been short-listed.

"Interviews are commencing Monday next week," Matutu said. "We have sorted
them in terms of priority, the ZMC first followed by ZEC, then the
Anti-Corruption Commission and then the Human Rights Commission. We are
(processing) them in phases."

Matutu said there was an overwhelming response from applicants seeking to be
appointed to the Media Commission.

"The field report from the Speaker short-listed 24 people out of 126 who had
applied to sit on the ZMC," Matutu said.

Parliament is expected to forward 12 names out of the 24 who have been
short-listed to President Mugabe, who will then choose a final list of nine
commissioners to sit on the ZMC.

The Zimbabwe Times understands that out of the 24 applicants, eight are
women. The names of a lawyer Chris Mhike, and a church pastor, Useni Sibanda
appear on the short-list. Journalists Kindness Paradza, Miriam Madziwa and
Ropafadzo Mapimhidze as well as media studies lecturers Clemence Mabaso,
Nqobile Nyathi, Rino Zhuwarara and Lawton Hikwa, have also been
short-listed.

The new media commission is set to replace the Media and Information
Commission, which introduced stringent conditions for the registration of
both Zimbabwean and foreign journalists as well as for the registration of
media organisations.

Matutu said the Standing Rules and Orders Committee will also shortlist six
applicants out of the 24 who will sit on the Broadcasting Services
Authority, set to regulate the airwaves.

He said interviews would take one and half days for each commission, meaning
names could be forwarded to President Mugabe before the close of next week.

The setting up of the media commission is touted as the starting point in
the planned democratisation of the media that has been under the fierce
control of President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

The formation of a government of national unity in February raised new hopes
for genuine media freedom in which journalists are free to practice their
profession while the public has access to information from a variety of
sourcces.

Just last week, Information Minister Webster Shamu told a BBC and CNN
delegation in Harare, led by CNN Johannesburg bureau chief Kim Norgaard and
BBC World News editor Jon Williams, that the two international news
organisations, banned in 2001 after their correspondents were kicked out,
were free to return to Zimbabwe.

The government has also lifted punitive import duty on newspapers, declaring
free duty on foreign newspapers. Just yesterday, a committee set up to
address the long-standing stand-off between the Daily News and the
government said the newspapers publishers had in their application satisfied
all requirements and the company was now free to approach the licencing
authority for a licence.

It appears that the first major assignment for the ZMC, once it is fully
constituted, will be to issue the Daily News licence.

Matutu said Parliament was moving with haste to set up the four
constitutional commissions.

The Independent Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will replace the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission, accused by the MDC of partisan support of Mugabe and
Zanu-PF in the last polls. The Anti Corruption Commission is expected to
deal with widespread corruption, while the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission
is expected to review the human rights situation in the country.

If Mahoso is appointed to the new media commission he will have the dubious
distinction of finally issuing a licence to The Daily News, a newspaper that
he has zealously denied one for six years.


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Rush to clear outstanding issues as SADC summit looms

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Lance Guma
31 July 2009

A SADC summit in August which is meant to review the progress of the unity
government has put Mugabe's regime under pressure to clear outstanding
issues, political commentators have said. The week has seen a flurry of
developments including the un-banning of the Daily News newspaper and the
Information Ministry allowing CNN and the BBC to resume reporting inside the
country for the first time in almost 8 years. In addition, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai on Thursday met the country's security chiefs for the
first time under the National Security Council, something that was supposed
to have happened several months ago when the bill creating the council was
first passed into law.

Other issues relating to the appointment of provincial governors, permanent
secretaries and the swearing in of Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy Bennett
are reported to have been resolved. Bennett is expected to be sworn-in in
August, while ambassadorial candidates from the two MDC formations will
begin their induction training next week Monday. A compromise was struck to
retain the current permanent secretaries on the basis that they were career
civil servants who possessed the qualifications to run the Ministries.

Commentators who spoke to Newsreel said Mugabe is under pressure to appease
the SADC heads of state given that Tsvangirai and Mutambara wrote to the
regional group and its chairman, South African President Jacob Zuma,
complaining about outstanding issues. Tsvangirai is currently in South
Africa for 'several engagements,' which we are told will include a meeting
with Zuma, where the state of the coalition government will be discussed.
Under the Global Political Agreement which formed the basis of the unity
deal, SADC and the AU are the guarantors of the deal. In January SADC
resolved to use its annual summit to assess progress made in the coalition.

But even as the coalition takes steps forward, other developments including
the indiscriminate arresting, convicting and jailing of MDC MP's continue to
cast a shadow over the government. The MDC also want the appointment of
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana
reversed because it was done without the consent of the other coalition
partners. Mugabe has refused to budge on removing his 'money man' Gono, and
his 'blue-eyed boy' Tomana. Sporadic attacks on MDC activists continue
countrywide with ZANU PF supporters acting with complete impunity.

Analyst Glen Mpani says Mugabe and Zanu PF want to create the perception
they are committed to the deal but will revert back to the normal behaviour
after the SADC review next month.


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Tsvangirai in South Africa to meet Zuma

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
31 July 2009

The Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa
on Friday ahead of a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma.

Tsvangirai's spokesman James Maridadi told SW Radio Africa the Prime
Minister had several engagements lined up in South Africa, starting with an
investment dinner at Sandton Convention Centre on Friday night.

Maridadi said Tsvangirai was also scheduled to meet Zuma sometime this
weekend to appraise him on the inclusive government, but MDC sources told us
Tsvangirai wants Zuma to pressure Robert Mugabe to reverse the appointments
of  of Attorney General Johannes Tomana and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon
Gono.
The MDC leader is said to be frustrated by the lack of progress in solving
the outstanding issues in the GPA, after Mugabe refused to budge on his
re-appointment of Gono and Tomana. The three principals have since declared
a deadlock on these two issues, meriting intervention from SADC as
guarantors of the deal.
Zuma, who holds the rotating Chairmanship of SADC, was sent a letter by
Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara two months ago, asking for assistance in
resolving the outstanding disputes in the inclusive government.

The MDC accuses Mugabe of using the Attorney General to get back ZANU PF's
Parliamentary majority by using trumped-up criminal charges to drive out
elected MDC MP's.

Mugabe's ZANU PF lost its grip on the legislature for the first time in its
history after the 2008 March elections when the MDC took control of the
Lower House and drew level in the Senate.
The inclusive government was formed to end the ZANU PF led violence that
erupted after the polls and to rescue the economy from a decade of freefall
driven by hyperinflation that left the local currency worthless.
The country this month began the process of drafting a new constitution
meant to pave the way to fresh elections. On Thursday, Tsvangirai attended
his first meeting with military chiefs at the inaugural session of the
National Security Council created under the unity deal.
The council is a new organ created to oversee the security forces and to
prevent Mugabe from exercising total control over them.


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Gono approves reopening of Bureaux de Change offices

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za

Eyewitness News | 4 Hours Ago

Zimbabwe's Central Bank Chief Gideon Gono has reopened all Bureaux de Change
offices.

The money-changers were banned in 2002 when they were accused of fuelling
the black market.

Customers were vetted to make sure they were not from the police.

President Robert Mugabe's government said the bureaux were offering inflated
rates of exchange and banned them.

The problem is the Bureaux de Change offices have limited use.

No tourist needs to buy Zimbabwe dollars anymore as they are no longer in
circulation.


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Paying the water bill prevents cholera


Photo: WHO/Paul Garwood
Checking on cholera
HARARE , 31 July 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabweans have been given the good news and bad news about their water supplies. First, the government declared the end of the devastating cholera outbreak; then, residents in the capital, Harare, were told to expect widespread cut-offs of water supplies over unpaid bills.

When the last case of the waterborne disease in the Harare township of Budiriro was recorded on 3 July 2009, the cholera epidemic that began in August 2008 had claimed the lives of more than 4,200 people out of about 100,000 known cases.

Health and child welfare minister Henry Madzorera told local media: "The nation experienced the worst cholera outbreak between August 2008 and June 2009, but the epidemic has been successfully contained and has ended."

Zimbabwe's dilapidated water reticulation system and decaying sanitation system were widely blamed for Africa's worst outbreak in 15 years. The collapse of infrastructure mirrored the country's rapid economic descent, when routine maintenance of the water and sanitation networks was neglected and the scarcity of foreign currency meant water treatment chemicals could not be imported.

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) was unable to provide clean water - or any water at all - so residents took to digging shallow wells, which were contaminated by the raw sewerage spilling into the city's streets. The responsibility for water provision has now reverted to local municipalities.

Analysts link the fading away of cholera to the onset of the dry season, which reduces favourable conditions for the waterborne disease to spread, and to widespread education programmes.

"All districts, provinces and cities will conduct post-mortems of the epidemic in their areas, evaluating their responsive strategies, and plan forward for future outbreaks, which have a strong likelihood of recurring in view of continued sewerage and water problems," Madzorera said.

Raw sewage still spills onto the streets of some suburbs, providing a dank reminder of the danger that cholera could return with the coming rainy season, but work on restoring the city's water and sanitation systems has begun.

No free water

Harare's municipality this week placed a slew of adverts in the local media, warning residents that the water supply would be disconnected if they did not settle US$23 million in outstanding accounts, and has since made good on their threats.

"Harare Water would like to inform its valued customers that with effect from Monday, 27 July 2009, there will be a massive disconnection of water in the low-, high-density, commercial and industrial areas to all those consumers with outstanding water bills," the adverts said.

The mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda, dismissed complaints by residents and insisted that all monies owed be paid. "I have not received water at my house for more than four years but I still pay my bills. No one is going to be relieved of their obligation to pay their dues to council," he told IRIN. "What we may consider is to reduce the amounts, but not total waiver."

''If clean water is cut off, then it will force residents to look for alternative sources, which will obviously be dirty. Disconnecting water is like cutting off life''
Unemployment is estimated at 94 percent, and since the local currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, was withdrawn as an antidote to hyperinflation, the accounts are expected to be settled in US dollars.

"We have held several meetings with residents, who have said they are prepared to pay outstanding bills so that we can restore service delivery. I think we are winning the heart-and-minds war after explaining to residents that our coffers are dry," Masunda said.

"I have been assured by senior staff that as things stand, they are ready for any cholera outbreak, and that they learnt their lessons in the last outbreak," he said.

However, the government minister responsible for water, Sam Sipepa Nkomo, disputed the mayor's claim. "The residents cannot be expected to pay for water which they did not receive or use."

There was concern that cutting off water supplies could fuel another cholera epidemic. "Instead of disconnecting water supplies to residents and commercial interests with genuine outstanding bills, the Harare authorities should negotiate easy payment methods, otherwise we will have another cholera disaster," he said.

"Remember, cholera killed more than 4,000 people and infected close to 100,000 people. Water is life, because everything that we do revolves around water," Nkomo pointed out.

"If clean water is cut off, then it will force residents to look for alternative sources, which will obviously be dirty. Disconnecting water is like cutting off life."


[ENDS]

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
 
 


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We have too many Chinotimbas, Mahlangus

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=20461

July 31, 2009
Jupiter Punungwe

THE recent hullabaloo over the loss of a cell phone by a Zanu-PF politician
purportedly to an MDC politician would make good comedy. Instead it makes
worrying reading that politicians can engage in such a frivolous spat, over
a mere cell phone, when they are supposed to be applying their minds to the
important issues of drafting Zimbabwe's constitution.

The spat also highlights a number of facts about Zimbabwe's political
situation. Fact number one is that Zanu-PF is still in control. This should
be clear from the continued detentions of MDC activists, continued inability
to bring Zanu-PF perpetrators of violence to book, that the MDC are nothing
but window dressers. They are the beautiful curtains hiding the ugly fact of
continued Zanu-PF dominance in Zimbabwean politics.

Mahlangu's plight also disturbingly illustrates the continued selective
application of justice. Hundreds of militants, who pummeled, thrashed and
pounded MDC activists to pulp, are walking scot-free in Zimbabwe. The police
seem paralyzed, unable to take even any rudimentary action such as laying
charges against some who are quite well known and can easily be identified
by their victims.

Zimbabwe police are known to be ruthlessly efficient. For example they
quickly traced and fished out escaped convict Masendeke from Mozambique
about a decade ago. The same ruthless efficiency was demonstrated in the way
they quickly tracked down the whereabouts of Chinotimba's SIM card. One is
left wondering what happens to this effectiveness when they are called upon
to deal with cases involving political violence.

MDC officials should by now be aware that Zanu-PF is like a crocodile. The
party can lie patiently and quietly waiting for a victim to make the wrong
move. When the victim slips up they pounce with unbelievable ferocity and
ruthless efficiency.

MDC officials should thus know that it is incumbent upon them to be extra
careful in their dealings. These dealings should also be based on principle
not the kind of mendacious opportunism that landed Mahlangu in trouble.

In the past I have often lamented the lack of solid principled ground upon
which the MDC stands. If have complained that they are a bunch of
opportunists hunting personal gain more than they are hunting for freedom
for ordinary Zimbabweans. Mahlangu's actions are clearly the actions of an
opportunist.

That the MDC are opportunists does not mean that Zanu-PF is free of
opportunism either. The actions of Chinotimba also reek of opportunism
albeit impractical opportunism. Chinotimba is claiming US$19 million for
loss of business. That amount is enough to pay the salaries of all of
Zimbabwe's teachers for six months. One wonders why Zimbabwe is struggling
with poverty and sending officials all over the world begging for money if
Chinotimba can make enough money to pay the entire civil service in a few
fortnights.

Instead of travelling all over the world to beg for money the Prime Minister
should just pop over to Chinotimba's home.

Humour aside, it is clear that Chinotimba's claim lacks any practical and
logical basis. It epitomizes the shallowness and lack of analytical power
that plagues most Zimbabwean politicians. They are shy to apply their minds
to situations and are very quick to make outrageous and poorly thought out
demands.

Neither Mahlangu nor Chinotimba emerges from this saga with flying colours.
Unfortunately, the Zimbabwean political establishment is littered with
people of Mahlangu and Chinotimba's calibre.

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