http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
23:59
DOG-eating Chinese engineers have caused an uproar in Matabeleland
South
where they are installing transmitters.
The behaviour of the
Chinese who have a penchant for dog meat has unsettled
villagers who are now
jealously protecting their animals which should
naturally guard them.
Matabeleland South police spokesman, Tafanana Dzirutwe
confirmed that police
had arrested two Chinese nationals after evidence was
found that they were
slaughtering dogs at their makeshift camp.
But he said the two were
warned and released because Zimbabwe does not have
laws regulating how
people can slaughter dogs.
Concerns about the eating habits of the Chinese
were raised after dogs began
to disappear in the area.
The village
headman warned his subjects to be careful about their dogs'
movements.
Some of the dogs did not just go missing. The Chinese
workers offered cash
for the dogs, considered a delicacy by the
Orientals.
Local workers claimed they had seen the Chinese buying the dogs
for as
little as US$10 each before brutally killing them.
The dogs are
reportedly tied with wires around their necks and hung from
trees so that
they defecate, before being struck with iron bars on their
heads.
The situation caught the attention of a Harare-based
animal rights campaign
group, Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe
(VAWZ), who together with
the Bulawayo chapter of the Society for Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals
(SPCA), travelled to West Nicholson outside Gwanda
town in Matabeleland
South to investigate.
VAWZ spokesperson,
Meryl Harrison said villagers had witnessed the killings,
but were reluctant
to talk.
The headman then accompanied them to the top of a kopje, where they
found
two Chinese men, camped next to a transmitter.
"On investigation
inspectors found the wire in a tree, a pool of dried blood
underneath the
tree, several pieces of dried dog meat hanging up and, some
distance away, a
dog's paw and tail," she said.
Harrison said a fourth dog was to be
killed the following day. A report was
made to the police, leading to the
arrest of the Chinese, though another one
had since relocated to
Mutare.
The Chinese were due to appear in court last Monday, charged
under the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
However, they have since
been released, because the police claim that
"Zimbabwe does not have
legislation stating how one should kill a dog".
A livid Harrison says the
Chinese should have been charged under sections
3(i)(d) that criminalises
any action that "causes any unnecessary suffering
and 3 (i)(g) which deals
with a person who "cruelly causes or permits any
animal to be tied up or
confined".
"We cannot believe that the perpetrators of such appalling
cruelty to three
innocent animals are only given a warning, when the
legislation is provided
for in Zimbabwe's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Act," she said.
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010 22:38
A
Harare magistrate on Friday sentenced a 27-year old Waterfalls gardener to
an effective 15 years in jail for rape.
Magistrate Simon Kachambwa
found Jeketa Mutize guilty of raping a 39-year
old woman from the same
suburb after a full trial although he pleaded not
guilty.
It is the
State's case that on May 2 at around 9.30 pm, Mutize who was in
the company
of his brother, met the complainant who was walking to her home.
He
offered to accompany her but she refused and continued on her journey.
After
walking for about four km, she saw Mutize suddenly reappearing and
tried to
lure her into going to his place but she again refused.
He suddenly
lifted her and head-butted her.
She bled through the nose and he dragged
her into a nearby bush and raped
her twice.
Tragic end to cellphone
dispute
HARARE magistrate William Bhila will soon preside over the trial
of a
20-year old man who stabbed another man with a knife in the stomach
exposing
his intestines.
Clemence Mafundirwa of an unknown address is
accused of assaulting Raymond
Muzengeza (22) of Overspill in Epworth on
February 22.
It is the State's case that Mafundirwa, who is self employed
owed Muzengeza,
who is unemployed, a cellphone.
Man killed during
beer drink
A Harare man will soon appear in court on charges of culpable
homicide
after he allegedly killed another man by stomping on his genitals
during a
beer drink.
Tatenda Chidanika (28) is being charged for the
crime that happened on July
24.
The police charge sheet states that on
the day in question, Chidanika
together with his friends approached Ephraim
Masunga (35) and another man
who operated from a building adjacent to the
one he operates from.
Masunga and his friend were drinking
beer.
Masunga's friend asked Chidanika and his friends to leave their
premises,
prompting an angry Chidanika to argue with the unnamed
man.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
22:36
LOCATING the Mbare Chimurenga Choir in the bustling suburb is no
mean feat.
Despite the group's growing infamy, the choir is hardly
known.
At the foot of the notorious Jubheki flats, lies the house of one of
the
group's leaders, Elizabeth Bwanya.
There is hardly any evidence
that 30 years of Robert Mugabe rule has
uplifted this god-forsaken place
where his latest praise-singers reside.
Rubbish lies strewn all over the
place with hardly any corner left
untainted.
Broken windowpanes and
dirty walls of the nearby flats are scary for the
uninitiated and one would
hardly suspect this area is the home of a group
that so profusely heaps
praise on Mugabe.
Bwanya's house was not easy to find, as she stays in a
backyard, though the
house is well constructed and furnished.
Just as has
become commonplace in the country, there was no electricity at
her home, a
result of load shedding so she had to resort to cooking on a
small
flickering flame.
Taps run unattended, with a number of people seemingly
more concerned about
what their neighbours were up to rather than
concentrating on their own
business.
Bwanya, an imposing and
exuberant character, spoke fondly about her choir
and their location.
And
from the way she spoke, she seemed very confident of her
surroundings.
The leader of the Mbare Chimurenga Choir, who doubles up as
Zanu PF district
secretary for women's affairs, claims she was a chimbwido
(girl collaborator
during the war) and the songs the group released are a
reflection of her
past.
She claims, without providing figures, that
the group's album was selling
like hot cakes and they were finding it hard
to meet the incessant demand
for it.
Bwanya and her group have been
receiving generous airplay on the state's
four radio stations and ZTV, the
sole television station.
The songs which many have said are offensive for
their support of President
Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are played at
30 minutes intervals.
However, Bwanya claims that they did no receive any
funding from Zanu PF for
the production of the album.
"They did not
even put a single dollar," she claimed. "Since last year each
member has
been putting $5 into our coffers and this has seen us being able
to pay for
the record deal."
Bwanya said when they felt they had saved enough money
they approached Amos
Mahendere, who in turn produced the album.
The choir
is reported to have 109 members and was formed in 2004.
Despite a lot of
opposition to the songs, she defiantly recites popular Zanu
PF rhetoric that
the pirate radio stations should be shut down or their
songs and other
like-minded groups will continue being played on television
and
radio.
Bwanya said she was not interested in the inclusive government and
her main
priority was ensuring that Mugabe retained power.
Despite
claiming that Zanu PF had not played any role in the production of
the
partisan jingles, The Standard has it on good authority that the party
and
the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity led by the party's
commissar minister Webster Shamu played a major role.
Most of the
footage used in the videos was taken from the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings
(ZBH) library, where state security agents sifted
through various videos and
file photos searching for suitable material in an
effort to make the
video.
An insider said the agents began their work in March and were
literally
camped at the state broadcaster to see that the project came to
fruition.
"Most of those pictures and video clips are from our archives,
while some of
the clips are computer generated," the insider
revealed.
Bwanya denied this, though she declined to divulge where they had
got
material for their videos.
A furore has been brewing over the
jingles since they were introduced just
under a month ago.
Cabinet was
reportedly against the jingles and ordered the state broadcaster
to pull
them off air but ZBH has so far defied the directive.
Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara last week said Information minister,
Shamu would issue a
statement on the jingles.
Critics of the jingles say the songs are hateful
and partisan and in a way
they undermine the spirit of the inclusive
government.
Bwanya, on the other hand remains defiant, saying critics
should come up
with their own songs, just as MDC-T legislator Paul Madzore
has done.
But Madzore's songs never receive any airplay on national radio and
television.
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010 20:52
A woman,
about 21 years old, carefully strokes her baby, as if to put her to
sleep.
The child lets out a whimper and the mother strokes her even
more
vigorously; unaware of its surroundings the baby occasionally lets out
a
sharp shriek.
Nearby, a child of about two years twirls around with
her mother’s hair and
the mother irritably brushes her away as she sits
patiently waiting for the
arrival of promised guests.
It seems the
women have been waiting for long and their singing, which began
fervently,
is slowly turning into a whisper, as they await the arrival of
Obert Gutu,
the deputy Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
Another
woman, who is pregnant, looks disinterested at the proceedings and
keeps
herself occupied with tending a pot on the fire, while chasing away a
boy
who looks a year old and seems happy to make himself as much of a
nuisance
as possible.
These women are part of hundreds of female prisoners
incarcerated at
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison’s female section, where
they are
imprisoned with their children.
A senior prison official,
Betty Chibwe told Gutu that there are as many as
12 babies behind prison
walls and because of their young ages they had to be
jailed with their
mothers.
“There are 12 babies here and they range from between zero and
four years
and there are three pregnant women,” she said.
As she
chronicled the problems they faced at one of the country’s most
notorious
detention centres, she said of major concern was the lack of food
which
compromised the health of the mothers and their babies.
Over the years
the country’s prisons have faced acute food shortages, with
reports of
malnutrition and pellagra affecting prisoners.
One prisoner even alleged that
in 2008 there were mass graves at prisons as
people died due to
starvation.
The Red Cross has since intervened and is providing meals for
all inmates.
“The food is still not enough, mothers have to share their
rations with
their babies and this is hardly enough for them.
“We need
more for inmates who have their children here,” the prison officer
added.
Food shortages at Chikurubi are worsened by the fact that the
Zimbabwe
Prison Services has barred relatives from bringing inmates food,
forcing
prisoners to rely on rations of beans and sadza daily.
A
notice outside the main gate reads that food may only be brought on public
holidays like Christmas, New Year’s Day, Heroes and Defence Forces’
Day.
The prisons department’s budget does not cater for the children also
doing
time, and they have to share their mothers’ own paltry rations.
The
nursing mothers felt this was unfair on them, fearing malnutrition for
both
themselves and their babies.
The prisons’ official further told Gutu that
they faced serious transport
problems and the only ambulance that the
institution had had long broken
down.
“These women and their babies
sometimes fall ill and there is no way we can
transport them to hospitals
and this creates problems for us,” she said.
With the acute shortage of
transport, some women, Gutu heard, had given
birth within prison walls a
situation that ZPS said they would love to avoid
in fear of disease
outbreaks and complications during birth.
An inmate said a significant
number of prisoners were HIV positive and
needed special care during
birth.
However, since they could not go to hospital they risked passing HIV
to
their children and other inmates.
The Zimbabwe Association of
Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation, an
non-governmental organisation that
deals with the welfare of prisoners,
estimates there are more than 300
children in the country’s prisons, the
majority whom are less than
two-years-old.
A woman, who seemed to have stayed longest in prison, told
the minister that
the issue of child inmates was a painful one and if the
government had any
compassion breastfeeding mothers should receive amnesty,
as most of them had
reformed and learned that prison was not for raising
children.
“Please look at their cases,” she pleaded. “When you see all those
street
children out there, they are our children because once they reach a
certain
age they are discharged from here and they will have nowhere to go
and they
end up on the streets,” she said.
The women then broke into
song and dance, pleading with the deputy minister
to hear their cases,
hoping that Gutu would put in a good word for them in
case there was a
general amnesty, freeing prisoners.
“I cannot promise that you will all
be released but when there is an amnesty
some would be freed,” he
said.
Gutu said his experience as a lawyer had shown that the prison system
reformed a majority of women, though he warned that repeat offenders would
not be lucky in case there was an amnesty.
After that the inmates
went down on their knees and began praying in
tongues, that left a majority
of the guests with tears in their eyes,
bidding Gutu an emotional
farewell.
BY NQABA MATSHAZI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
20:48
CLAD in white robes and a wooden staff in hand, President Robert
Mugabe sang
along with members of the Johanne Marange Apostolic sect at a
Passover
ceremony in Manicaland province recently.
Mugabe, who claims
to be a devout Catholic, might have looked awkward in the
flowing robes but
the 86-year-old veteran leader was a man on a mission - to
win the hearts
and minds of the members of the sect ahead of next year's
polls.
So
he had to appear like one of them. Already, Zanu PF propagandists are
claiming Mugabe's presence at the church ceremony was a sign that he still
commanded popular support.
The size of the captive audience has been
estimted at between 150 000 and
250 000 by the state media.
Political
analysts say the country's two main political parties have taken
their fight
to the pulpit in an effort to control the church constituency
ahead of
elections expected next year.
Weeks earlier, Zanu PF political commissar
and Media, Information and
Publicity minister Webster Shamu, war veterans'
leader Jabulani Sibanda and
former party spokesman Ephraim Masawi had also
attended a Johanne Masowe
church service in Mashonaland Central province
where they urged church
members to support Mugabe.
Already, some
members of the Apostolic sect across the country are
encouraging their
members to buy Zanu PF cards in preparation for elections
next
year.
They have already swallowed the bait, so to speak.
Analysts say
Zanu PF has realised the importance of the church constituency
after Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's main political foe, got an
arousing
welcome at an Apostolic church service in April.
But the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) leader was not campaigning for
votes.
His mission
was to encourage members of the sect, discouraged by their
leadership from
using modern medicine, to have their children immunised
against child killer
diseases.
Regardless, the reception he got sent Zanu PF into panic
mode.
Last week Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) agents scuttled
Tsvangirai's
intended address of members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC),
the largest
and fastest-growing of the African independent churches in
southern Africa.
MDC-T said the agents threatened ZCC officials fearing
that Tsvangirai would
steal the limelight at the church's annual gathering
at the Mbungo Shrine in
Defe, Gokwe in the Midlands ahead of the
elections.
The Prime Minister was supposed to be accompanied by Vice
President John
Nkomo and MDC-M vice-president Gibson Sibanda.
The leaders
were expected to address the church on the thorny issue of
national healing
and reconciliation.
A political analyst, who requested anonymity, said
the church was a "sea of
influence" for politicians who do not need to call
for rallies.
"Definitely, it's a sea of influence . in business we would call
it a ready
market," he said.
But the analyst said there was nothing
amiss even if politicians went to the
church to seek votes because they have
a right to freedom of association and
assembly.
"It only becomes a
problem when politicians force church-goers to buy party
cards or when you
prevent other politicians from addressing congregations,"
said the
analyst.
Renowned commentator in church and social affairs Father Oskar
Wermter
said it was common for political leaders to turn to the church at
election
times and join church congregations for "popularity".
"It
shows the weakness of church leaders if they allow this to happen," he
said.
"The church is not involved in partisan politics and political
propaganda
has no place in the house of God."
Another political
analyst who requested anonymity said Zanu PF has targeted
the Apostolic sect
because its members do not question what their leaders
tell
them.
"They are a captive electorate because once their leaders tell them
that the
'Holy Spirit' has told them to vote for Mugabe they will just do
that
without a question."
Reverend Doctor Levee Kadenge said the
church constituency was crucial as it
constitutes the biggest percentage of
voters in the country.
"More than 75% of Zimbabweans are church-goers and
ignoring that area is
suicidal for politicians," said Rev
Kadenge.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) said it had no
information on
the possible impact the church constituency can have on the
outcome of
national elections.
Kadenge said campaigning for votes in
the church must not be "too obvious"
and must not be accompanied by threats.
"In the churches, people are taught
not fear another human being so even if
there is intimidation it will not
work.
"It will only work to those
with little faith . they will become cattle
fodder."
Zanu PF spokesperson
Rugare Gumbo said he was in a meeting when contacted
for comment. Efforts to
get him later were fruitless.
But political fights for the control of the
church are not restricted to the
Apostolic church sects.
Fights in
the Anglican Church have virtually degenerated into a tussle
between Zanu PF
and the MDC-T, though on the surface it appears as if they
are ordinary
power struggles, observers say.
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, a self-confessed
Zanu PF apologist, recently barred
members of Bishop Chad Gandiya's faction
from holding their annual Bernard
Mizeki day commemorations at the revered
martyr's shrine in Marondera.
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
20:45
EVERYONE loves oranges unless they have turned into lemons, as they
seem to
have done at a citrus farm a few kilometers outside Chegutu owned by
former
deputy Minister of Information Bright Matonga.
Visitors to the
farm will discover that oranges can become sickeningly dark
brown in colour
or look so unhealthy that from afar they easily put-off
would-be
consumers.
This is the reality that confronted The Standard news crew
that visited
Matonga’s farm last week. The citrus plantation, previously
known as
Chigwell Farm which used to generate between US$3 million to US$4
million
annually under the management of Chegutu commercial farmer Tom
Beattie is in
an advanced state of neglect.
Things have become so bad
that weeds grow luxuriantly in the orchard,
chocking the life out of the
withering orange trees.
Workers were last week frantically trying to repair a
broken water pump.
A worker at the farm last week offered a strange
explanation for the failure
to irrigate the orange trees which are
exhibiting all the signs of
water-related stress.
“Pombi yakarumwa
nemakonzo (The pipe was eaten by rats),” quipped the man we
found at the
farm last week.
“We hope if it’s fixed we can irrigate some of these oranges.
You can’t sell
them in this state.”
The man was right.
The
oranges are not the sweet and delicious fruit that one associates with
the
famed Zimbabwean orchards which thrive, thanks to the sunny weather
conditions that prevail in many parts of Zimbabwe.
Some of Matonga’s
oranges, which are not being sold, are so tiny, blemished
and disfigured
that they literary leave a sour taste in one’s mouth. Others
are rotting in
the trees.
“My friend, these orange trees are just wild trees growing on
their own,”
said one young man we found in Chegutu last week.
“If they
don’t beat the competition posed by the weeds, they die.”
In fact, one
needs nerves of steel to navigate the orchard which is turning
into a snake
infested jungle.
Any weeds one can think of are competing for space with
orange trees.
The Standard was told by a fear-stricken worker that
dangerous snakes were
finding a safe breeding ground in what should have
been a thriving citrus
exporting farm.
“It’s a miracle that no one
has been bitten by snakes here,” said a worker.
The worker feared that the
plantation could also be posing a fire hazard.
Part of the orchard is now
a bush where people, affected by the frequent
Zesa power cuts, gladly pick
firewood.
On Friday Beattie described what had happened at his former citrus
plantation as a disaster.
“The orchard is finished, you need a
bulldozer to clear the orange trees.
They are a write-off,” he
said.
“Seventy-percent of the trees are dead; they can’t be resurrected. I am
disappointed, they put people who have no money to run the orchard. They
can’t look after the trees, yet they expect to reap oranges.”
Under
proper management, Beatie says the orange trees planted in 1990 should
have
provided juicy oranges for between 25 to 30 years.
“But the trees won’t
produce because they haven’t been watered, he (Matonga)
can’t afford the
water,” said Beattie.
“The orchard needs to be sprayed weekly, or
sometimes fortnightly depending
on the circumstances.
“The trees must be
fertilised, each tree requires between one and half to
two kg of
fertiliser.”
“For the 110 hectares taken over by Matonga, around 80 to 90
tonnes of
fertiliser are required every year.
“Matonga can’t buy this
amount of fertiliser; he has no money. So what has
he succeeded in doing is
turning oranges into lemons.”
With emotion in his voice, Beattie added:
“The orchard has not been managed,
these people were sent to destroy,
nothing else. They were told, we hate
this white man, destroy his property
and they did that.”
A fuming Matonga yesterday refused to respond to
accusations that he had run
down a once thriving citrus farm. He instead
launched a blistering tirade
against this journalist for “specialising” in
negative stories about him. He
also threatened to lodge a complaint with the
police for alleged
trespassing.
“You wrote about my divorce, and now
you want to write about my oranges. You
only see the negative.
“You went
to my farm without my permission, took pictures. That’s an
invasion into my
privacy; it’s like entering my bedroom. I will report you
to the
police.
“Why did you choose only oranges, why haven’t you asked about the 100
hectares of sorghum, eight hectares of sugar beans, 100 hectares of seed
maize on my farm. You should be ashamed of yourself, go ahead write what you
want, I am not bothered.”
While Matonga says The Standard is
manufacturing stories about him, vendors
in Chegutu whose livelihood depends
on selling oranges purchased from the
orchard are not impressed
either.
They now travel about 8km to a farm owned by one “Madzongwe”
where they buy
their oranges for resale. Madzongwe refers to Senate
president Edna
Madzongwe who invaded a farm owned by a Canadian couple last
year.
“Who wants to travel a long distance to buy oranges when a citrus
plantation
is a stone’s throw away,” said a middle aged woman, who was
struggling to
sell a pack of small oranges dubbed “Orange-tonga” a
bastardised term used
to refer to oranges from Matonga’s farm.
We
inquired about the origins of this “orange-tonga” variety.
“Oranges are
known to be sweet. But if you see the kind of oranges that we
started to get
from the new farmers, you will understand why they earned
this name. They
are tiny and juice starved. They are also not sweet.
Somehow, all oranges
falling in that grade are now called orange-tonga.”
True to her saying, if
you travel along the Harare-Bulawayo road these days,
you see this so-called
orange-tonga variety being sold by the roadside.
The oranges, sold for a
dollar or two for a small pack, are tiny and
unappetising. They are mostly
shunned by travellers.
A disenchanted vendor selling the oranges gave a
grim assessment of the
variety:
“The people who buy my oranges are mainly
those who are coming from the
rural areas. Some of these people have not
eaten oranges for the past five
years, so they can’t really complain about
their taste,” he said.
It is alleged that Matonga, in expropriating the
farm from Beattie, grabbed
US$860 000 worth of farming equipment. The case
is in the courts.
BY WALTER MARWIZI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010 15:46
THE
ongoing prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programmes at
public hospitals and across the country are viewed by many as a welcome move
as they offer expecting mothers a platform to choose whether they want to
get tested for HIV before they give birth or not.
Commendable as it
may be, most men continue to shun the programmes for
various
reasons.
PMTCT focuses on the prevention of HIV transmission from the mother
to the
infant during pregnancy, labour, delivery and breastfeeding.
It
also covers treatment and support for parents found to be HIV
positive.
The initial charge covers maternal health from the day the
pregnant woman
registers at the clinic or hospital until six weeks after
delivery.
A visit to clinics in Chitungwiza showed that HIV/Aids prevention
programmes
that call for both male and female involvement were attended by
women only.
Men who spoke to Standardhealth said PMTCT was good in that
it helped
expecting mothers know their HIV status but said clinics were not
usually
male-friendly as they were dominated by women.
Obert Kawara
from Zengeza in Chitungwiza said: “PMTCT is of great benefit to
both parents
and the unborn child but it’s very hard for a man to do that.
“The
environment itself is not pleasant. Imagine being the only male in a
room
filled with women, you would feel out of place.”
Another Chitungwiza
resident, Ephraim Muzerengi, said he did not feel
comfortable attending
health-related programmes in the company of his wife
because it was
considered taboo in his culture.
But he agreed that HIV prevention was
not meant for women only.
Muzerengi said health personnel should enlighten
people, make sure that
their environment is user-friendly for men and that
men realise that health
issues are beneficial to them as much as they are to
their wives.
The University of Zimbabwe and University of California, San
Francisco
(UZ-UCSF)’s microbicides trials network project director Nyaradzo
Mgodi said
men were eager to play their part but still felt they were being
left out in
HIV prevention programmes.
“Actually, men are feeling
left out of studies. One issue is that men have a
poor health seeking
behaviour.
“They may not present themselves to health care facilities as
often as
women. Women are more amenable, they present themselves to clinics
more than
men, for example on pregnancy issues,” Mgodi said.
Charles
Chasakara also from UZ-UCSF said the relevant organisations should
ensure
that information was disseminated to the intended beneficiaries
without
leaving anyone behind.
He said male participation was still very low in
Zimbabwe, but they had
since witnessed a significant improvement in two of
their recent research
studies.
“In two studies that I participated
in, the evidence shows that men feel
they can make a difference.
“In the
beer hall study, a male-focused prevention study, men’s
participation was
very good.
“We surpassed our recruitment targets and the cohort of peer
educators
(sahwiras) that we worked with,” he said.
Chasakara said if
targeted in areas they patronise, men can participate
fully.
He said
men complained that women were being put on the forefront of Aids
prevention
programmes all the time.
“In the other study (workplace-based intervention)
men expressed the desire
to take a leading role in prevention.
“They
felt that too many studies were focusing on women and leaving out men
who,
in actual fact, play a bigger role in decision making on most aspects
of
health-related practices,” Chasakara said.
BY ELIZABETH NDHLOVU-DUMBRENI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
15:45
BINGA - The United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)
and local partners are strengthening the delivery of HIV related
services
and initiatives targeting vulnerable groups in six
provinces.
Speaking during a tour of the final of six first level
train-the-trainers
workshops for community volunteers providing HIV/Aids
support services in
Matabeleland North province, a senior official at the
CDC hailed the
response from training participants saying the initiatives
were meant to
strengthen coping mechanisms among vulnerable
groups.
"Our support aims to build capacity of provincial implementing
partners who
are themselves community Aids service organisations and people
living with
HIV and Aids (PLWHA) support groups in the delivery of HIV
related services
and initiatives, to strengthen appropriate coping
mechanisms among
vulnerable groups," said Gretchen Cowman, deputy director
of CDC Zimbabwe
during a tour of one of the training workshops in
Binga.
The workshop, a partnership between The Centre in Harare and Ntengwe
Community Development in Binga and Victoria Falls, targeted 30 home-based
caregivers and peer educators based in Matabeleland North.
Addressing
journalists on the sidelines of the workshop, Fred Kachote,
executive
director of The Centre, said the training had so far been
successful,
reaching nearly 80 district-based trainers.
He said the survival skills
workshops had been held in Manicaland (with
Dananai Care and Support group
in Buhera), Masvingo (Batanai Support Group),
Mashonaland East (Zimbabwe
Women against Aids, Poverty and Violence),
Midlands (Gweru Women's Aids
Prevention Association) and Harare (New Dawn of
Hope Support
Group).
Kachote said the workshop would assist Prevention Implementing
Partners
(PIPs) to develop a cadre of multi-skilled district and ward level
trainers
noting that his organisation's involvement went beyond just
training.
"We want to provide technical assistance to PIPs in the
development of HIV
related policies, advocacy and lobbying, decision making
and gender
mainstreaming for PLWHA," said Kachote, whose organisation is
also
supporting an outreach officer in Binga through a local implementing
partner, Ntengwe.
During the training, participants went through
sessions on understanding HIV
and Aids, counselling, nutrition guidelines,
treatment issues and handling
disclosure.
They discussed cultural
issues affecting the prevention of the spread of
HIV.
James Munkuli, a
home-based care giver in Karirangwe, 80 km south of Binga
centre said in his
locality there is still a lot of stigma attached to HIV
and Aids citing
local cultural practices that continued to present
challenges to HIV
prevention.
"Early marriages, wife adoption and resistance to the use of
condoms are
still challenges in the prevention of HIV in my district, but
our peer
education programmes are beginning to bear fruit," said
Munkuli.
Munkuli said he hoped to train 18 other caregivers in his
locality.
Munkuli and 80 other volunteers in Zimbabwe's six provinces
will undergo
similar training in the future until they attain level three
training
certification. -
Own Correspondent
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010 15:42
THE
fight for the control of an assets development company, Assetfin has
turned
ugly following the arrest of the deputy registrar of companies,
Willie
Mushayi for allegedly favouring a faction of the shareholders.
Assetfin
shareholders are up in arms over the control of the company.
These are Onias
Gumbo and Unitime Investments who have 50% shareholding
apiece. Mushayi, who
is out on bail, was arrested last month for allegedly
contravening Section
174 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act (Chapter 9:23).
The state says he abused a public office by showing
favour to Antony
Parehwa thereby disregarding Gumbo and Emelda Mapanzure as
directors of
Assetfin.
Mushayi's lawyers, Coghlan Welsh and Guest made an application
for the
exception of the charge under Section 171 of the Criminal Procedure
and
Evidence Act.
Under the section, "when the accused excepts only
and does not plead any
plea, the court shall proceed to hear and determine
the matter forthwith and
if the exception is overruled, he shall be called
upon to plead to the
indictment, summons or charge".
Magistrate
Donald Ndirowei on Tuesday dismissed the application on the basis
that the
application was premature and the matter was remanded to August 11.
Gumbo
is alleged to have changed the directorship of the company putting his
name
and former director Mapanzure as the directors of the company.
In a letter
dated June 8 2010 to Fidelis Maredza the chief registrar of
companies,
Parehwa said Mapanzure had in an affidavit denied that she was a
director of
the company.
"In her affidavit, she denies the citation of her name as
part of
submissions as she never filed the CR14 alluded to on the fraudulent
document," Parehwa wrote.
He said Mapanzure's affidavit "confirms our
suspicion that the former
director, Onias Gumbo, has been trying to mislead
you through fraud and
forgery of Assetfin records".
Mredza is said to
have mandated Mushayi to investigate the allegations
raised by
Parehwa.
In a memo dated June 15 to Maredza, Mushayi wrote that the CR14
filed by
Mapanzure and supposedly registered on June 27 2007 was irregular
as
confirmed by her affidavit disowning the document.
"It is
therefore very evident that the office file 11596/98 was tempered
(sic) with
and original documents removed particularly the current CR14
showing the
current list of directors and secretary," Mushayi wrote.
"With the
documentary evidence at hand the CR14 listed as Appendix 6 in the
letter of
8 June 2010 listing Paul Hupenyu Esau Chidawanyika and Antony
Taengwa
Parehwa as the current directors of Assetfin (Pvt) Ltd is the true
record of
the company's directorship, and must be restored to the file."
On the
same day, Mushayi wrote to Parehwa confirming that the Assetfin file
had
been tampered with and that Parehwa and Chidawanyika were the true
directors
of the company.
He asked Parehwa to submit another original set of CR14
forms listing the
correct list of directors and secretary.
The letter
was copied to the Attorney General, Johannes Tomana, police
commissioner
general Augustine Chihuri, Anti-Corruption Commission CEO,
general manager
(investigations) Anti-Corruption Commission, police officer
commanding
Serious Fraud Squad and the deputy and officer commanding Harare
Province.
If Mushayi is found guilty, he is liable to a fine not
exceeding level
thirteen or imprisonment for period not exceeding 15 years
or both.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010 15:39
RESERVE
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono last week blasted some
banks for
levying high charges to sustain “utopia-style packages” for their
management.
He warned that the central bank would be forced to
intervene if the
situation was not addressed.
The warning comes hard
on the heels of calls by Finance minister Tendai Biti
for banks to raise the
rates on deposits which he said were too low.
Biti’s assessment of the
banking sector was seen as a signal that
authorities were losing patience
with the sector.
In his mid-term monetary policy review statement on
Thursday, Gono said his
office had been inundated with concerns from various
stakeholders against
the high charges.
Gono said the scenario where
management at banks “in some institutions get
paid and live like angels
while their own financials are suggesting
otherwise cannot be
sustained.”
“The banking corporate and individual sectors cannot
therefore be made to
sustain utopia-style packages that do not reflect the
banks’ core income
streams benchmarked on reasonable charges and normal
trading activities,” he
said, warning that the RBZ would intervene if its
warning was not heeded.
“We do not wish to be dragged to the extreme
point where there will be no
option but to prescribe limits on bank
charges.
“Indeed, such a day will regrettably be a dark one as our economy
remains
steadfast in allowing the virtues of market forces to flourish in
the
interests of both allocative and productive efficiencies,” Gono
warned.
He said the mismatch between lending and deposit rates needed to
be
addressed.
Lending rates are high and range between 12%-18%. Deposits
rates attract a
paltry 2% interest per annum thereby discouraging
savings.
Gono said all banking institutions must with immediate effect post
on
visible boards, their explicit conditions of service, covering deposit
and
lending rates, as well as all other banking charges.
“The
mandatory publishing of each bank’s conditions of service will ensure
that
banks do not penalise borrowers through extractive charges and interest
rates that are unrelated to fundamentals,” he said.
Yet there were
some cheers from banks after RBZ scrapped the statutory
reserves with
immediate effect to improve the liquidity in the system.
From February 1,
statutory reserves were 5%, the RBZ was keeping 2,5% and
the remainder
(2,5%) was being kept in an offshore bank authorised by the
central
bank.
Gono said the RBZ had been “capacitated with a modest seed fund to
resume
its lender of last resort function” and the detailed operational
modalities
would be circulated to the banking sector.
Since the
introduction of the multiple currencies, banks were operating in
the absence
of a lender of last resort thereby exposing institutions to
risks in the
event of problems.
BY OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010 15:39
BULAWAYO -
Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) has reduced the approval
period of
investment projects to 10 days from over seven weeks as it moves
to
implement structural reforms aimed at wooing investment into the
country.
ZIA, which has approved projects worth US$120 million since the
beginning of
the year, has been accused of being a barrier to investment by
taking too
long to approve applications by foreign investors.
Richard
Mubaiwa, the ZIA CEO told Standardbusiness on Wednesday that the
reduction
in the approval period of investment projects was a result of
structural
reforms being implemented by the body to woo investment.
"The ZIA
investment committee now meets after every two working weeks to
approve
applications and what that means administratively is we have reduced
the
period of approval of investment projects to 10 working days," Mubaiwa
said
in a telephone interview.
"We are moving towards transforming ZIA into a
one-stop shop investment
centre.
"We are implementing a concept
(one-stop investment centre) which is
awaiting official launch by the
government."
Under the one-stop shop investment centre concept, it is
envisaged that the
approval of investment projects will be done under a
week.
Zimbabwe, which has since the turn of the millennium witnessed investor
flight due to the unfriendly environment mainly related to the political
situation, is desperate for quick investment to turnaround the
economy.
The inclusive government has announced that it is reviewing
investment laws
and policies to woo more foreign capital into the
country.
According to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment
Promotion,
Zimbabwe is in the process of crafting a new investment policy
and law (the
National Investment Policy and the Investment Promotion and
Protection Act).
Both the law and policy are expected to enhance the
country's investment and
overall economic standing.
Foreign direct
investment in 2009 totalled US$60 million, an increase of
US$8 million from
the US$52 million recorded the previous year, according to
the World
Investment Report released by the United Nations Conference on
Trade and
Development.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
15:39
BARCLAYS Bank has entered into a £1,5 million (about US$2,3
million) three
year partnership with Junior Achievement (JA) worldwide as
one of the ways
to tackle the issue of youth unemployment.
The
programme is meant to promote entrepreneurship among youths who are out
of
employment.
The percentage of youths living in poverty is extremely high. In
some
countries about 90% live on less than US$2 a day according to a 2008
World
Bank study.
Finding productive employment for Africa's 200
million young adults is one
of the greatest challenges facing the continent
today.
JA is a renowned charitable organisation working in partnership with
business communities, educators and volunteers to inspire young people to
dream big and achieve their potential.
As part of its efforts, youths
from various schools in Harare, through
Barclays Bank, experienced "job
shadowing" last week where they spent the
day "in the shoes" of the top
managerial staff at the bank.
Barclays Bank managing director, George
Guvamatanga said, "We are building
the future of the students as a
company."
Mona-Lisa Dube an upper sixth student at Queen Elizabeth High
School got a
chance to shadow Guvamatunga as the MD.
"The experience I
had shadowing the MD was very interesting and at the same
time it was very
inspiring," Dube said.
"I lived the day as the MD.
"It certainly has
shown me that we can achieve what we want by working hard
as one cannot just
wake up and become the MD of a large bank without working
for
it."
Barclays Bank has been working with JA in Africa for many years
teaching
children hands-on experimental programmes, key concepts of work
readiness,
entrepreneurship and providing financial literacy to young people
all over
the world.
Children in the rural areas will not be left out
as the bank is developing
innovative computer-based technology to reach
rural areas.
"As Barclays we are doing this because we know how important it
is for the
children and it is also important for us to be talking to our
future
customers and the future workers of Barclays," Guvamatanga
said.
The bank will work with over 8 000 students worldwide as part of
its global
"banking on brighter futures" theme focusing on education and
entrepreneurship.
The world youth report in 2007 indicated that the
International Labour
Organisation estimates that around 88 million young men
and women throughout
the world were unemployed accounting for 47 % of the
186 million unemployed
globally.
Schools which participated in the JA
programme were Highfield High1, Harare
High, Prince Edward, Gateway, Harare
Girls High, Mabelreign Girls High and
Queen Elizabeth.
BY PERPETUA
CHIKOLOLERE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
20:43
THE question of children living with their parents in prison is a
human
rights issue which should be addressed as a matter of urgency.
In
the past two weeks deputy Minister of Justice Obert Gutu toured prisons
in
the capital city in his attempt to appreciate the conditions prisoners
were
living under.
Prisons the world over have never been hotels and it is
generally understood
that they have to have the most austere conditions in
order to enforce some
kind of punishment of undesirable members of
society.
The most painful aspect of the tour however was the presence of
dozens of
children living with their errant mothers in the cells. The
children's ages
ranged from mere infants to four-year olds.
According
to Prison Fellowship International there is considerable debate,
and no firm
consensus, about whether children should stay in prison with
their parents
and if so the age at which they should have to leave. Clearly
the conditions
in prison and what alternative care arrangements are
available are
significant considerations. Where there is agreement is that
while children
remain in prison with their parents, their lives should be as
similar as
possible to how it would be on the outside and they should not be
subjected
to the restrictions on their freedom that other residents of the
prison
are.
It seems unavoidable that there will be children accompanying their
mothers
to prison. Often this is because they would not have anyone on the
outside
to look after them. Also some are born in prison since their mothers
would
have been incarcerated when pregnant.
But is it possible that
these children can afford the kind of life children
with free mothers
live?
Zimbabwe is facing a food crisis, and this is worse in prisons. The
rations
are meagre and the mothers with children in the cells are not given
extra
rations having therefore to share the little they have with their
children.
This is not only grossly unfair but it leads to the malnutrition
of both
mother and the child. It makes both vulnerable to disease.
It
is also difficult to imagine whether these children and their mothers
have
ready access to health care. Zimbabwe's health-delivery system is bad
enough
for free people, let alone those in penal institutions!
An important
consideration is how these children will be integrated into
society when
they leave prison. They have not lived normal lives since they
have lived
among criminals. How do these children on growing up deal with
the stigma
that their mothers are criminals?
They are also susceptible to sexual
abuse. Studies in other countries have
shown that some of the women in the
cells are child abusers. Prison
officials have also been seen to be guilty
of this offence.
In the recent tours it has been revealed that some of
the pregnant women who
will eventually deliver and live with their babies in
the cells are
HIV-positive. They do not have access to anti-retroviral
treatment and they
are not on programmes that prevent mother-to-child
transmission of the
virus. So what we have is a group of children who are
condemned to death for
the sins of their mothers.
But there must be
some humanitarian interventions in this emotive issue.
Prison cells are
never the place to raise children; incarcerated mothers
would be the first
to testify to this. For the sake of their children they
should be given
amnesty. It is difficult to see how a mother raising a child
can relapse
into her criminal past. In cases where this is highly likely,
open prisons
should be the place to hold these mothers.
Further, there are children's
homes to which these children should be sent.
There they would be looked
after by experts and they wouldn't have to grow
with the stigma that they
are prison babies.
Zimbabwean indigenous culture frowns on adoption but
this is an idea that
must be pursued. Some prisoners might find adoption a
better alternative to
keeping their children in the prisons where they will
never lead normal
lives.
Children's rights organisation must lobby
for the fair treatment of children
living in prisons; not to do so is to
neglect a serious human rights issue.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
20:41
I would like to comment on Minister Biti’s statements that he made
before
the senate recently regarding monetary gains from the mining
industry.
Minister Biti was quoted telling the senate that, “Last year,
we only got
US$44 million from the mining industry yet they exported over a
US$1
billion”. The minister did not provide similar statistics for other
sectors
of industry so that informed comparison of product sales and
corporate tax
relationships can be made.
How does the stated cost and
corporate tax relationship in the mining
industry compare with other
industries that are foreign-owned such as the
sugar estates, tobacco
traders, cotton traders, insurance companies, banks
etc? I think Biti should
provide more numbers to compare the various
sectors.
Minister Biti runs
the national budget, sits in parliament and attends
cabinet meetings; he has
the power to influence levels of corporate tax and
mining royalties. What is
the Finance minister doing or planning to do in
terms of shaping policies on
corporate tax and mining royalties that are
more favourable to our
country?
If the mining industry has great profits, why is Zisco up for
sale? It is
known that Zimbabwe has huge deposits of iron, coking coal and
limestone
which are key raw materials for Zisco. One can argue that Zisco if
it were
operating efficiently at full capacity would benefit the country
much more
than the platinum mines.
Zisco employs a lot more people
per tonne of ore mined and more jobs are
created locally in related
industries such as transport, coal supply,
foundries, metal fabrication and
steel making. Iron and steel also find use
in every other sector of our
local industry including manufacturing,
agriculture, mining and
construction. On the other hand, products from the
platinum mines do not
have a ready market or downstream processing in
Zimbabwe. So there is much
to benefit from Zisco running more efficiently.
In the past there was a
policy that gave new investors tax holidays for up
to five years for the
purposes of attracting foreign direct investment. It
was mentioned around
the days when BHP set up Makwiro Platinum Mine that BHP
was given such a tax
holiday. Instead of a tax holiday could the state
instead convert these five
years to a time of acquiring equity in the new
industries? Money that would
have come to government as taxes would then be
used to purchase a
shareholding in the new ventures, say up to 15%
shareholding over the five
years.
I also want to mention that for more than 10 years there have been
press
reports that Zimplats has on offer a 15% shareholding that can be
bought by
government or indigenous business people. This offer has not been
taken up
for all these years. Does this mean that Zimbabwean locals and the
state do
not have money to purchase this 15% shareholding in Zimplats? What
has
government done to facilitate acquisition of this 15% Zimplats stake by
locals? Maybe Zimbabweans in the Diaspora can be mobilised to purchase this
shareholding — it has been said that the Diaspora contributes quite a neat
sum to our economy.
My appeal to Biti is: Please do not go the
nationalisation route; we have
seen the performance of state-run companies
which is not impressive at all.
Facilitating investment by indigenous
business people in the mining sector
would be a great thing to do — we have
seen indigenous business people in
telecoms, banking and other sectors
working hard to harvest a profit from
their investments.
It’s not
always clear that the major shareholder in parastatals desires to
harvest a
profit from its investment — at least it doesn’t judging by
perennial
pumping in of tax money into parastatals with no profits being
made for the
majority of the years.
BY S. HWAMANDA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
20:39
LAST week South African President Jacob Zuma sent Mac Maharaj, a
member of
his negotiating team, to Harare to observe developments in the
government of
national unity (GNU) and try to bring the discordant members
of government
closer to consensus.
This month there will be a
Southern African Development Community (Sadc)
summit in Windhoek, Namibia.
Whether Zimbabwe will be on the agenda, or not,
is still open to
conjecture.
Last month there was an African Union (AU) meeting in
Kampala, Uganda; the
Zimbabwean crisis was hardly mentioned.
The present
chairman of the AU, Bingu wa Mutharika, couldn't be bothered
because his
close ally Robert Mugabe is in full control, everything going
his
way.
Mugabe and Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni are birds of a
feather.
Namibia, which will this month assume the chairmanship of Sadc is
also led
by another close Mugabe ally, Hifikepunye Pohamba who will try by
any means
to ensure Mugabe is not exposed to censure for all the breaches of
the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) he has committed.
So what does
the AU and Sadc think of the situation in Zimbabwe? Have they
taken a leaf
from former mediator Thabo Mbeki who is infamously quoted
saying: "What
crisis? There is no crisis in Zimbabwe."
Parties to the GPA which saw the
formation of the GNU one and a half years
ago have hardly gelled together
with dozens of outstanding issues still
threatening to tear the government
apart.
It must be admitted though that all is not doom and gloom. The
past year has
seen some strides being made in the revival of the economy and
the bad-boy
image that the country had assumed over the past decade is
beginning to be
sanitised with a number of western journalists beginning to
write positively
about the country.
Most of the outstanding issues
are nothing really but peripheral issues
which do not deserve to be tabled
at a serious regional or continental
summit.
But what are the real
issues?
The crux of the matter is that when the GNU was formed, to the
majority of
Zimbabweans it was tasked with three major deliverables: to
write a new
constitution, hold internationally observed elections and to put
in place a
government of the people's choice.
The constitution-making
process is stuttering; there is a clique in Zanu PF
which does not want to
see it succeed and is prepared to use violence to
ensure its goal is
achieved. The reason is difficult to work out but one can
presume it is
because this clique, which evidently, is very powerful,
continues to benefit
from the status quo.
Its readiness to use violence and intimidation will
again ensure that the
elections, supposedly coming next year, will not be
free and fair and they
will not be recognised by many countries across the
globe; it will again be
a case of the same old rubbish!
But the third
deliverable is the most worrying. In case Zanu PF loses the
elections, as
they did in 2008, will they be willing to transfer power?
In 2008 Zanu PF was
unwilling to transfer power to the MDC-T which had just
won the elections.
It took five weeks for the Zimbabwe Election Commission
to announce the
results and when they did they were doctored. The period
between that
election in March and the presidential runoff in June became
the most
singularly violent period in Zimbabwean history outside the
gukurahundi
era!
This unwillingness to transfer power should be the critical reason
why Sadc
and the AU should keep Zimbabwe on the agenda.
Commentators say
it is now clear that the MDC made a suicidal mistake in
entering the GNU
without addressing this crucial issue.
It has become very clear that the
people who call the shots in Zanu PF do
not include President Robert Mugabe.
Some say the nation is continually
being reminded that he is the head of
state and government and
commander-in-chief of the defence forces precisely
because he is neither.
The role of the generals in the running of politics
in Zimbabwe is becoming
increasingly clear.
Zimbabwe is being run by
a military junta; to deny this fact is to be
foolish.
The military
junta's stranglehold on Zimbabwe has been tightened by the
discovery of
diamonds in Chiadzwa. Reports seem to indicate that the two
companies
contracted to mine the diamonds, Mbada and Canadile, are in fact
only fronts
of the junta. Their reporting structures eventually merge at the
desk of the
military strongmen who constitute the stratocracy. With the
shadowy way in
which the diamonds are mined and sold, the junta must be
floating like a
cork in money.
This money will be used to block a clean transfer of power
should Zanu PF
lose next year.
This is why the transfer of power is the
most important outstanding issue in
the GPA; not the other almost vexatious
issues such as the playing of
jingles on radio.
If Sadc and the AU
are to fulfill their mandate as guarantors of the GPA,
they must deliver the
generals! When Sadc meets in Windhoek this month top
of their agenda should
be how they are going to do this.
Zuma may send some of his greatest
negotiators to Zimbabwe to mediate the
impasse in the GNU but all they will
do is dwell on the trivial issues such
as that of the provincial governors,
Gideon Gono, Johannes Tomana and Roy
Bennett. What they will never do is to
tackle the real issue, namely the
issue of disabling the generals to ensure
a smooth transfer of power if it
becomes necessary.
BY NEVANJI
MADANHIRE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 31 July 2010
20:37
IN a country emerging from a conflict situation there is need to
address the
situation through a process of transitional justice. According
to the
International Centre for Transitional Justice, "Transitional justice
is a
response to systematic or widespread violations of human
rights.
It seeks recognition for victims and to promote possibilities for
peace,
reconciliation and democracy. Transitional justice is not a special
form of
justice but justice adapted to societies transforming themselves
after a
period of pervasive human rights abuse."
The following
factors may be a few prerequisites to the national healing
process.
The
process must be taken with utmost respect, seriousness and sincerity it
deserves.
Those in the leadership must be women and men of very high
social standing.
Preferably drawn from faith-based organisations or other
traditionally
respected institutions, but definitely not politicians. This
is because the
issue of forgiveness, national healing, and ultimate
transitioning in such a
situation touches the core of humanity; ie, the
SOUL. It is my contention
that the essence of forgiveness as a 'faith and
belief' related process is
religious in its nature. It touches the essence
of being and is linked to
the very fact that the major scar that requires
healing is not a physical
one, but that of the soul and heart which affects
the national psyche.
It must always be noted that this is a very delicate
process whereby
different groups in society negotiate and engage in
conversations with
history to cause; forgiveness, healing, transitioning and
progress. Please
note, that in this process, current generations are engaged
in negotiations
on historical differences of similarities, with deeper
experience of time.
Time here is the narrative construction of temporality
which underlies and
accompanies different historical events necessitating
the process of
transitional justice.
Those spearheading it must first
conduct a deep-seated research on the
general exercise they are embarked on.
Further, the commission dealing with
it must be people from Matebeleland,
mostly, with a few people from
Mashonaland, as you would know that generally
the Gukurahundi genocide is
considered to have been an ethnically
orchestrated process.
There must be no denial of Gukurahundi genocide in
the process, and no
attempt must be made by anyone, whether in the media or
civil society to try
and reconceptualise it in a manner that may injure the
feelings of victims
and survivors because that can easily render the process
useless.
There is need to have a pool of advisors from different backgrounds;
it is
here that the role of social scientists and various opinion makers
becomes
necessary.
There is need for a conference that will seek to
cause an interlock of both
the conceptual engagement of the process, its
genesis and envisioned
outcomes. The latter must not be tinkered with by
politicians, it must only
be prepared to serve as the compass for use when
the process is underway. It
is here that history gains centre stage.
History, as a philosophy of
verifications requires deep-seated engagement,
and must not be distorted as
we have often seen in Zimbabwe, whereby the
history of the Ndebele, for
example, continues to be distorted over the
years by some Zanu PF
historians; the likes of Nhandara, Chigwedere, etc,
and is even taught in
schools. Of late, the same Zanu PF created history
about the Ndebele seems
to have found a buyer in the person of Mrs Sekai
Holland, one of the
ministers entrusted with the duty to cause national
healing and integration.
Since we have agreed that transitional justice
is an endless process, there
is need for a revision of the school curriculum
with a view to help new
generations and posterity in their quest to converse
with history.
Given that after Gukurahundi genocide, its physical form,
the people of
Matebeleland have continued to be marginalised, there is a
need for a new
order in which various systems will be put in place to ensure
that years of
neglect are paid for by the state.
nDr Brilliant
Mhlanga is an academic and human rights activist. He is
currently based at
the University of Westminster in London, UK.
BRILLIANT MHLANGA