http://www.nation.co.ke
By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION
CorrespondentPosted Thursday, December 17 2009
at 18:50
HARARE,
Thursday
Zimbabwe's three governing parties have reached an agreement
on a number of
outstanding issues threatening their power sharing agreement
despite
resolutions passed at a recent congress of President Robert Mugabe's
Zanu PF
party rejecting compromise.
Zanu PF had at its congress held
over the weekend instructed party
negotiators not to soften their positions
on the contentious appointment of
President Mugabe's cronies to head the
central bank and the Attorney General's
office and the removal of targeted
sanctions.
One of the resolutions read: "Congress has noted that the
inclusive
government brings the party into partnership with ideologically
incompatible
MDC formations from which it must extricate itself in order to
retain its
mantle as the only dominant and ascendant political party that is
truly
representative and determined to safeguard the aspirations of the
people of
Zimbabwe."
The veteran ruler had also appeared to be
rejecting any compromise with his
former arch rivals after urging his
supporters to gear up for fresh
elections.
But it has since emerged
that Zanu PF and the two Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) formations
have since agreed on 15 of the 21 items on the
agenda.
Some of the
issues agreed on during the talks led by South African President
Jacob Zuma
include media reform, pirate radio stations beaming into the
country and the
audit of the controversial land reform programme.
However, the parties
are likely to declare a deadlock on the appointment of
the central bank
governor and the attorney general, targeted sanctions and
Mr Mugabe's
refusal to appoint Mr Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of
Agriculture.
Mr Bennett is the treasurer general of the MDC led by
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and is currently facing banditry and
terrorism charges for
allegedly plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe and also
to launch an
insurgency.
The MDC wants a deadlock to be declared on
the outstanding issues so that
they can be taken up by the Southern African
Development Community (SADC),
which brokered the power sharing
agreement.
One of the negotiators, Mr Elton Mangoma of the main MDC told
London based
SW Radio that the principals in the unity government, Mr
Mugabe, Mr
Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Professor Arthur Mutambara
had given
them up to Monday to conclude the talks.
The talks, which
had taken a break because of the Zanu PF congress, are
expected to resume on
Friday.
http://www1.voanews.com
A public opinion survey in September by the Mass Public Opinion
Institute
revealed that the majority of Zimbabweans felt their life had
improved over
the past year and wanted elections within two
years.
Scott Bobb | Johannesburg 16 December 2009
In
Zimbabwe, confrontation between President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai appears likely to continue, despite some progress
during
the year toward political and economic stabilization.
For Zimbabwe's long
suffering citizens, the year 2010 appears likely to see
more of the
confrontation, stalemate and mediation that have characterized
politics over
the past months.
Southern African leaders in February were able to bring
President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF Party and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change into a power sharing
government.
"I, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, do swear that I will be
faithful and bear
true allegiance to Zimbabwe and observe the laws of
Zimbabwe, so help me
God," he said.
But disputes and rivalries
continued to stall progress toward the ultimate
goal of a new constitution
and free and fair elections.
ZANU-PF held its party congress in the final
days of the year and adopted a
hard line toward its partner in government.
Mr. Mugabe urged the party to
unite against what he called the
enemy.
"The elections are not very far off, the inclusive government was
given a
short life, 18 months, 24 months, and so the remaining part of its
life is
very short," he said.
He said ZANU-PF had lost the elections
of 2008 because of party in-fighting.
The MDC won a majority of
parliamentary seats in the 2008 elections and Mr.
Tsvangirai out-polled Mr.
Mugabe in the presidential vote. But Mr. Mugabe
won the run-off election
after Mr. Tsvangirai withdrew, citing a campaign of
intimidation in which
100 of his supporters were killed.
Months of mediation by southern
African leaders led to a power-sharing
agreement in September and then to
the unity government.
The agreement eased tensions and lessened political
violence and
human-rights abuses. And the new government stabilized the
economy by
abandoning the inflation-battered Zimbabwean dollar and adopting
the U.S.
dollar and South African Rand as currencies.
Almost
overnight, shortages of food, fuel and basic goods ended. Economic
activity
picked up. And the government at yearend announced economic growth
could
reach seven percent after a decade of decline.
Still political leaders
found it difficult to abandon the rhetoric of
confrontation when speaking to
their supporters as during this rally by Mr.
Mugabe in
August.
"Never, never surrender. Zimbabwe is mine. I am a Zimbabwean,"
he said.
The continuing confrontations led Mr. Tsvangirai in October to
announce that
his party would boycott ZANU-PF ministers and Cabinet
meetings.
"It is our right to disengage from a dishonest and unreliable
partner. In
this regard, whilst being in government we shall forthwith
disengage from
ZANU-PF, in particular from Cabinet and Council of Ministers
until such time
as confidence and respect are restored in this
relationship," he said.
One-month later, after another summit by the
Southern African Development
Community and its chief mediator, South
Africa's President Jacob Zuma, Mr.
Tsvangirai relented.
"We have
suspended our disengagement in the government to give SADC and the
facilitator, who is comrade Zuma, that within the next 15 days the party
representatives will meet to look at all the issues and how they should be
implemented, and it is all issues, and that within 30 days all issues must
be cleared [so] that we do not have to deal with this dispute once and for
all. We are satisfied," he said.
Analysts said some progress,
meanwhile, was being made on forming media and
election commissions as
called for in the political agreement. And civic
groups were mobilizing
volunteers to prepare the population for a series of
consultations on a new
constitution due to be drafted in the coming year.
But progress was slow,
hampered by a lack of funding and the confrontations
within
government.
Nevertheless, a public opinion survey in September by the
Mass Public
Opinion Institute revealed that the majority of Zimbabweans felt
their life
had improved over the past year and wanted elections within two
years.
But the survey also showed considerable differences along party
lines over
the abuses that had accompanied the previous elections, how to
deal with
them and how to bring about true national reconciliation.
http://www1.voanews.com
Political sources in Pretoria and Maputo neither South African
President
Jacob Zuma, mediator in Zimbabwe, nor Mozambican President Armando
Guebuza,
has been impressed with the extent of progress in the Harare
talks
Blessing Zulu | Washington 17 December 2009
Key figures
in the Southern African Development Community have signaled that
they are
growing impatient for meaningful results from talks among
Zimbabwe's unity
government partners who have continued to dither on the
contentious issues
which have long troubled the power sharing arrangement.
Political sources
in Pretoria and Maputo said South African President Jacob
Zuma, designated
Zimbabwe crisis mediator by SADC in November, has sent a
preliminary report
on the Harare negotiations to President Armando Guebuza
of Mozambique,
chairman of the SADC troika on politics, defense and
security, which helped
break an October-November deadlock in the government.
But neither leader
has been impressed with the progress, sources said.
Zuma adviser and
facilitation team member Lindiwe Zulu told VOA that without
a complete
report there is not much room for higher-level mediation.
She expressed
hope that party negotiators would meet this week and give
unity government
principals a comprehensive report by Monday.
However, the negotiators
failed to meet this week as Welshman Ncube of the
Movement for Democratic
Change formation of Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara was out of the
country. ZANU-PF negotiators had also called for
time out to attend their
party congress over the past weekend (which adopted
proposals essentially
refusing further concessions to the MDC for now).
Other negotiators
including Tendai Biti of the MDC formation of Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa of
President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF said they did not know if talks would
resume
Friday.
At this juncture negotiators have yet to grapple with the most
divisive
issues on the agenda including the leadership of the Reserve Bank
and the
Office of the Attorney General, and the swearing-in of MDC
provincial
governors.
International relations expert David Monyae in
Johannesburg told VOA Studio
7 reporter Blessing Zulu that the unity leaders
must get down to business.
http://www1.voanews.com
Former
president Trevor Gifford of the Commercial Farmers Union reported a
surge in
land invasions, saying ZANU-PF hardliners are pushing such
takeovers because
they want to see the national unity government collapse
Gibbs Dube |
Washington 17 December 2009
Farm invasions continue in Zimbabwe under
the banner of land reform with the
issuance of some 200 new letters of offer
to prospective new owners issued
by the Ministry of Lands and Rural
Resettlement this month.
Former president Trevor Gifford of the
Commercial Farmers Union said there
has been a new surge in land invasions
around the country, saying hardliners
in the ZANU-PF party of President
Robert Mugabe are pushing such takeovers
because they want to see the
national unity government collapse.
The Movement for Democratic Change
formation headed by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has urged a stop to
farm takeovers arguing that the country must
turn to rebuilding rather than
eliminating agricultural capacity and that
farm takeovers deter foreign
investors concerned about the rule of law.
President Mugabe launched land
reform about a decade ago on the premise that
arable land should be returned
to indigenous black Zimbabweans from whom it
was seized by mainly British
white settlers in the 19th century.
Gifford said nearly all of the
country's 4,000 formerly white owned
commercial farms are now designated for
takeover under the land reform
program.
Meanwhile, after after
resolving in its recent congress to step up the pace
of land redistribution,
ZANU-PF is gearing up to block the national land
audit that was called for
under the September 2008 Global Political
Agreement for power sharing to
identify multiple farm owners and fallow
fields.
ZANU-PF sources said
senior members including top security officers, police
and senior officials
of the Central Intelligence Organization will resist
the audit which they
view as an MDC subterfuge to undo land reform.
The sources said most
senior party officials have multiple farms that are
idle or underutilized
and are determined not to let representatives of the
unity government
conduct audits of the properties they control.
Finance Minister Tendai
Biti has earmarked US$31 million dollars to fund the
audit in
2010.
Political analyst Joshua Mhambi told VOA Studio 7 reporter Gibbs
Dube that
it would be difficult to carry out such an audit and that it was
also
unrealistic to expect that the divisive land reform issue could be
resolved
any time soon.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Edith Kaseke Friday 18 December
2009
HARARE - Under a clear African sky, glittering lights
illuminate the Harare
Gardens and pedestrians stroll confidently in the
park, a cool soft breeze
sweeping through the city, marking the arrival of
Christmas to this
devastated country.
Zimbabwe is recovering from a
debilitating economic crisis that left the
majority of its citizens in
miserable poverty, but today they are trying to
recapture the spirit of
Christmas of yesteryear.
"Christmas is going to be much better than we
have endured in the past two
years, in fact we never celebrated it in the
last two years," said Stanley
Mugwagwa, a photographer working in the Harare
Gardens park.
This time last year, the southern African nation was mired
in a long
recession with many people struggling to eke out a
living.
But Zimbabweans say their lives have improved following the
formation of a
unity government between sworn enemies President Robert
Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, somewhat ending political
tensions and economic
meltdown.
Shops are fully stocked with basic
commodities, from sugar to flour, which
this time last year were only found
on the black market after a
controversial government price freeze in 2007
wiped all shops of their
stocks.
Travelling has become easier with
fuel available at service stations across
the country.
The era of
long queues and empty shops may have gone.
The government introduced
foreign currencies early this year, replacing a
worthless local currency
that was eroded by inflation that had galloped to
the world's highest level
of 236 million percent, the worst for a country
not at war.
The days
of moving around with bags of Zimbabwe dollars to buy even basic
commodities
are gone as people use foreign currencies like the United States
dollar and
South African rand and shopping again for Christmas.
"Now we can buy a
few things for the children, at least they will remember
this Christmas
because last year we had nothing, not even bread," said a
woman who
identified herself as Mai Gamu, who lives in Budiriro township.
Plastic
fir trees, the occasional Santa Claus and banners advertising sales
discounts all mark the arrival of Christmas.
For the first time in
three years, businesses have re-introduced accounts
for customers, who can
now buy on credit.
A Spar supermarket in the Arundel suburb is stocked
mostly with South
African imports, from sugar to whisky and they are
struggling to cope with
frenzied buying by consumers.
In downtown
Harare, the streets are busy with shoppers looking for bargains.
"The
prices are higher here but now we don't have to drive to South Africa
for
shopping, that was ridiculous. I am sure this will be a Christmas with a
difference," said an elderly white couple as they carted a trolley from
Arundel Spar.
Last year Zimbabweans had to endure long trips to South
Africa to buy basic
goods like sugar, maize meal, flour and cooking oil as
the economy reached
tipping point but local manufacturers have started
producing the goods
again.
However it is not cheers for everyone as
incomes remain depressed while the
country struggles to get funding from
Western donors.
An average government employee earns a monthly wage of
$150, barely enough
to survive the month and there are little prospects that
the government will
significantly raise the salaries next year.
Mike
Mupeti, a primary school teacher at a Harare school summed up the
frustration of many civil servants who have on several occasions threatened
to go on strike over low pay.
"I am not sure what is better, having
empty shops and no money like we had
or stocked shops but with no money to
buy with," he said while drinking
opaque beer from a shake-shake (cardboard
package), recently re-introduced
in the market by Delta. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Friday 18 December
2009
HARARE – The fallout from controversial links between Grace
Mugabe’s
Gushungo Dairy Estate and some international companies has claimed
its first
casualties amid reports that Swedish dairy equipment supplier
DeLaval has
parted ways with two senior managers for ignoring a ban on
trading with
Zimbabwe.
Leon Lilje, managing director of DeLaval’s
South African subsidiary, and one
of his senior managers Rykie Visser have
left company after being found
guilty of breaching the internal code of
conduct.
Although DeLaval spokesman Benoit Passard denied the pair was
fired, he said
Lilje and Visser left the company to “pursue outside careers”
after an
amicable agreement following the breach of the internal
code.
A subsidiary of Tetra Pak, DeLaval admitted in September to selling
dairy
equipment to a farm run by the wife of the Zimbabwean leader Robert
Mugabe
in a breach of European Union (EU) sanctions.
DeLaval sold
€320 000 worth of equipment including a 32-cow-capacity milking
parlour, two
giant cooling tanks and consumables to the Grace
Mugabe-controlled Gushungo
Dairy Estate.
The sale breached EU sanctions set up in 2002 that forbid
any funds or
economic resources being given to a list of Mugabe allies
including his
wife.
The company said at the time that it regretted
the sale but denied having
been aware that Mugabe’s wife was linked to the
Gushungo Dairy Estate.
DeLaval announced at the time that it would
investigate how the breach
occurred inspite of the tight control systems
that the company operated.
DeLaval is not the only major company to have
traded with the Gushungo Dairy
Estate since it fell into the hands of the
Mugabes.
It was recently revealed that Swiss food giant Nestle bought
between 10 and
15 percent of the milk processed at its Harare plant from the
farm.
Nestle has since stopped buying from the dairy farm but not before
an
international protest by human rights groups which triggered calls for a
worldwide boycott of its products.
The Zimbabwean First Lady
reportedly gained control of the dairy as a
beneficiary of her husband’s
controversial and internationally criticised
land-reform programme. –
ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tendai Maronga Friday 18 December
2009
HARARE - The state on Thursday said Peter Michael Hitschmann - a
key witness
in the terrorism trial of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai top
ally Roy
Bennett - should testify in court when the case resumes in January
despite
Hitschmann's sworn statement that he has no relevant information to
give to
the court.
Prosecutor Edmore Nyazamba told the court during
the matter of Hitschmann's
lawyer Mordecai Mahlangu, who was arrested last
month for obstructing the
course of justice after he prepared an affidavit
indicating that Hitschmann
was not going to testify against Bennett, that
Hitschmann was a competent
witness who can be summoned to testify to help
the state case against
Bennett.
"No one has the right to ill-advise
or conspire with a state witness. The
import of the letter by the accused
(Mahlangu) was prejudicial to the trial
of the state versus Roy Bennett. The
AG's office is armed with evidence from
Hitschmann that will help in the
trial against Bennett," said Nyazamba.
Mahlangu, who is on a US$100 bail,
stands accused of writing a letter to the
Attorney General's office
purporting to be Hitschmann. In the letter
Mahlangu is said to have written
that he would not testify in Bennett's case
because the evidence that the
state recorded was obtained through torture.
Mahlangu, through his lawyer
Advocate Happias Zhou, on Thursday applied to
have the charges dropped
arguing that the state case did not have any
"reasonable grounds to show
that an offence was committed".
But the prosecutor accused Mahlangu of
having written the affidavit on
Hitschmann's behalf and caused him to sign
it when he approached him for
advice.
"The effect of telling a
witness not to testify would be to discourage him
from giving information
that is vital in proving and disproving the
allegations against Bennett. In
the absence of the statement from Hitschmann
the trial of Bennett could not
have gone ahead," Nyazamba told the court
challenging the application for
refusal of further remand.
Nyazamba said the fact that Hitschmann had
failed to notify the state that
he was not able to testify when the matter
was supposed to start on October
19 in Mutare, shows that the advice he
received from Mahlangu was
prejudicial.
But Zhou said the position
that was articulated in the letter was Hitschmann's
and not Mahlangu's. He
further argued that it was in the public domain that
Hitschmann had disowned
the statements that implicate Bennett in the
terrorism and banditry charges
at his own trial in 1996.
Harare Magistrate Archie Wochiunga will make a
ruling on the application on
January 13 next year.
Hitschmann, a
Mutare based arms dealer, has been lined up by the state as
one of the key
witnesses in Bennett's trial which began at the High Court on
November
16.
Bennett, who is accused of possessing weapons for the purposes of
committing
banditry, insurgency and terrorism - charges he denies - is
currently on a
US$5 000 bail. - ZimOnline
http://www1.voanews.com/
Finance
Minister Tendai Biti has called upon the Zimbabwean diaspora to help
national reconstruction by providing investment capital and even paying an
expatriate tax in return for absentee ballots and dual
citizenship
Sandra Nyaira | Washington 17 December 2009
Zimbabwean
Finance Minister Tendai Biti has called upon the millions-strong
Zimbabwean
diaspora to help national reconstruction by providing investment
capital and
even paying an expatriate tax in return for reforms that would
allow
diaspora members to cast absentee ballots and hold dual citizenship.
Some
initial reactions were hostile, but others liked the potential
trade-off.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai meanwhile has repeated
his call to exiled
Zimbabweans to come home with their much-needed skills
and savings.
When Mr. Tsvangirai preached this message to expatriates in
London last June
he drew catcalls. But diaspora members were more receptive
last week when he
renewed his call for large-scale repatriation to a Cape
Town audience.
For a closer look at diaspora opinion, VOA Studio 7
reporter Sandra Nyaira
turned to two prominent Zimbabwean expatriates:
Ephraim Tapa, president of
the U.K. chapter of Restoration of Human Rights,
and Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
Executive Director Gabriel Shumba in
Pretoria.
Shumba says the proposal to give Zimbabweans abroad voting
rights and dual
citizenship is welcome - but demanding taxes in return
amounts to extortion.
http://www.thenational.ae
Sebastien
Berger, Foreign Correspondent
* Last Updated: December 18. 2009
12:52AM UAE / December 17. 2009 8:52PM
GMT
JOHANNESBURG //
After a victorious guerrilla struggle for independence, it
is often the
leader of the liberation movement who swaps his combat fatigues
for a suit
and tie and goes on to head the new government.
But that did not happen
in Zimbabwe. A mere five days after the Lancaster
House Agreement was signed
in London in December 1979, ending the armed
conflict in white-ruled
Rhodesia and paving the way for democratic
elections, Gen Josiah Tongogara,
the commander of the Zimbabwe African
National Liberation Army, was
dead.
Officially, he died in an accident in Mozambique, when his car hit
a
military vehicle as he travelled to the border and a return to the country
that would shortly become Zimbabwe.
A revered figure and a supporter
of unity between the separate independence
movements - who had grown up
living on the farm of Ian Smith, the prime
minister of white Rhodesia - his
demise cleared the way for Robert Mugabe,
the head of the movement's
political wing Zanu, who was swept to power as
prime minister in March 1980,
to assume the overall leadership.
It also raised questions that have
never been fully answered. Mr Mugabe said
the death was a tragic accident,
but with Zimbabwe's post-independence
history at times extremely bloody, he
also once declared that he has
"several degrees in violence".
Despite
it happening three decades ago this month, an activist group,
Zimbabwe
Democracy Now, is demanding a multiparty inquiry, placing a large
advertisement to that effect in the country's independent newspapers last
week.
With the headline, "Josiah Tongogara, 30 years of silence", it
read: "He
never made it back from exile and was denied his rightful place in
the
leadership of the nation.
"Since that time, millions of words
have been written about the war; many
who took part have become rich and our
country has gone from the second
largest economy in Africa to one of the
poorest in the world."
It also cited the death of Lookout Masuku, the
leader of the rival Zimbabwe
People's Revolutionary Army, who died in
hospital in 1986, shortly after
being released from Mr Mugabe's prisons,
where he was held after being
accused of planning a coup d'etat.
"No
more silence," it concluded. "No more killing of our heroes. We want
answers
and we want them now, because staying silent will never set us
free."
Ethel Moyo, the spokesman for Zimbabwe Democracy Now, said
suspicions still
persist that Tongogara was murdered. "He was seen as
someone who could build
lasting peace and reconciliation with his enemies -
traits which would have
been invaluable in Zimbabwe today.
"For any
future reconciliation to take place, the truth of his death must
finally be
revealed."
A number of the president's political opponents have met
unfortunate ends
over the years, often on the road, and have frequently gone
on to be buried
at Heroes' Acre, the national cemetery on the edge of
Harare, with Mr Mugabe
presiding over their funeral rites. The burial ground
includes Soviet-style
bronze panels depicting him inspiring the struggle,
and was designed by
North Korean architects to resemble an AK-47 assault
rifle split lengthways
and butterflied open.
Soon after being linked
to an alleged coup plot against Mr Mugabe in 2007,
Brig Gen Armstrong Paul
Gunda died when his car crashed into a train at a
level crossing - an
astonishing accident given the infrequency of rail
services in the country.
In the following weeks public information
broadcasts on state television
warned viewers: "Remember, you cannot win an
argument with a
train."
In 1994 Chris Ushewokunzwe, the commerce minister and a supporter
of
market-based land reforms, rather than seizure, was involved in three
separate accidents in 48 hours, dying when his vehicle hit an army lorry. At
his funeral his brother Herbert, in comments believed to have been aimed at
Mr Mugabe, said: "Now that you are killing and burying everyone, who shall
be left to bury you when you die?"
Tongogara himself was also accused
of selective assassination, even of his
own comrades: he was blamed in an
official Zambian government report for the
death of Herbert Chitepo, the
then Zanu leader, in a car bomb in Lusaka in
1975 - although the commander
of Rhodesia's Selous Scouts, Lt Col Ron
Reid-Daly, later admitted the white
regime's security forces were
responsible.
Sydney Masamvu, a Zimbabwe
analyst with the International Crisis Group, was
in no doubt that Tongogara
was murdered - and expected more deaths in the
future. "The bottom line is
that it was an ethnic thing to eliminate him,"
he said.
The military
leader was a member of the Karanga, the largest clan of
Zimbabwe's dominant
Shona-speakers, while Mr Mugabe is a Zezuru, the
second-biggest grouping, he
pointed out, saying the death put the Zezurus
"in the driving seat for 30
years".
Joyce Mujuru, Mr Mugabe's vice president, is also a Zezuru and
the favourite
to succeed him after successfully repulsing a challenge at the
ruling
Zanu-PF's party congress last weekend from her great adversary
Emmerson
Mnangagwa - a feared securocrat who is a Karanga and no less than
Tongogara's
brother-in-law.
"The battle in Zanu-PF is taking an
ethnic dimension," said Mr Masamvu.
"With Joyce Mujuru remaining unshaken
the Zezuru hegemony is bound to
continue but the Karanga believe it's now
their turn.
"The history of elimination is there in Zanu-PF ever since
the liberation
struggle. There will be blood on the carpet, literally, when
the penultimate
phase of the fight to take over from Mugabe, which is now,
reaches the home
stretch."
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=25945
December 18, 2009
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Tsholotsho North which became the only
constituency in Zimbabwe to
be represented in Parliament by an independent
legislator after it voted for
controversial politician, Prof Jonathan Moyo,
has become a Zanu-PF
constituency. Briefing journalists in Harare Clerk of
Parliament Austin
Zvoma said Moyo, who recently rejoined President Mugabe's
Zanu-PF could no
longer be referred to as an independent Member of
Parliament, as he now
represented Zanu-PF.
During his briefing, Zvoma
said Moyo now sat in the House as a Zanu-PF
representative for Tsholotsho
North. This means that the voters of
Tsholotsho North who rejected Zanu-PF
in the elections held in March 2008
are now represented in Parliament by the
very party they rejected, Zanu-PF.
Moyo secured his parliamentary seat
after he allegedly duped Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai through an
agreement that the latter's MDC party would not
nominate a candidate for
Tsholotsho North in order to give Moyo an easy
passage. Once he defeated the
Zanu-PF candidate and was elected Moyo turned
against the MDC and returned
to the Zanu-PF fold.
"Professor Jonathan Moyo is now Zanu-PF MP for
Tsholotsho North
constituency. That is the legal status," said
Zvoma.
Zvoma said unlike a political party which can write to Parliament
directing
any of its MPs be expelled from the august House, the case was not
the same
with independent legislators who are free to cross
floors.
"In the case of professor Moyo," said Zvoma, "he was an
independent. The
only way he would lose his seat is for him to have written
to the Speaker of
Parliament as Professor Jonathan Moyo to say that 'I no
longer have
confidence in the Member of Parliament for Tsholotsho North
constituency, in
other words himself, and that cannot be
possible.
"The constitution requires that a seat shall be declared vacant
if a member
ceases to be a member of the party through which he was
elected."
Zvoma said there was no provision in the Constitution whereby
the voters who
elected Moyo as an independent candidate could register their
displeasure
with his decision to abandon them.
"Professor Moyo is not
a party," Zvoma said. "There is no provision for an
independent member to be
answerable to the electorate. If he goes back to
his constituency and still
finds people there it means he is still a Member
of Parliament for that
constituency."
Turning to a different issue Zvoma said Parliament would
no longer allow
Gibson Sibanda, deputy president of breakaway faction of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party led by Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur to
continue to attend parliamentary sessions as he has long ceased to
be a
member.
Sibanda, who lost his Nkulumane seat to the mainstream
MDC-T's Thamsanqa
Mahlangu in the March 2008 parliamentary elections, last
appeared in public
as a legislator cabinet minister when he attended the
official opening of
Parliament by President Robert Mugabe.
"Gibson
Sibanda is not a minister," Zvoma told journalists Thursday during a
special
media briefing on the operations of Parliament.
"Sibanda ceased to be a
minister upon the expiry of the period stipulated in
the constitution that a
person (who is not an MP or a Senator) may be
appointed to a ministerial
post and can hold that post for a maximum period
of three
months."
Zvoma said Sibanda attended the ceremony officially through an
error.
"He should not have been there," said Zvoma, "He attended in
error. He
believed that he was entitled to attend but the occasion was that
we did not
want to evict him as if he was someone who has broken into a
house."
Asked if Parliament would make the same error of allowing Sibanda
to attend
a parliamentary function again, Zvoma said, "We are not in the
business of
allowing people to repeat errors.
"His official title now
is that he is not a minister but is now a special
advisor," Zvoma said.
Sibanda was seconded to the National Organ on National
Healing and
Reconciliation which was co-managed by ministers John Nkomo of
Zanu-PF and
Sekai Holland, representing the mainstream MDC. Nkomo was sworn
in as
vice-President on Monday following his nomination by the Zanu-PF
congress
over the weekend.
"The constitution says one ceases to be a minister
(after three months)
unless he secures a seat either in the Senate or House
of Assembly by way of
appointment or by way of election and that position I
am sure is amply
clarified."
Appointed Senator by Mutambara at the
inauguration of the current inclusive
government by Zimbabwe's three main
political parties, Sibanda was
subsequently appointed Minister of State in
Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara's
office, a position that was not provided
for in the Global Political
Agreement.
Zvoma said, meanwhile, that
the three MPs who were expelled from the
Mutambara faction of the MDC in
July for alleged indiscipline were still
entitled to the vehicles that they
acquired through Parliament.
The three are Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South);
Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East)
and Norman Mpofu (Bulilima
East).
Bhebhe has since filed a High Court application to compel
President Robert
Mugabe to call for by-elections in vacant constituencies
throughout the
country.
Zvoma said constituencies that have gone for
months without representation
due to either the death or redeployment of
their parliamentary
representatives had no recourse in terms of the law
other than to plead with
the President or the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
to call a by-election.
He said only President Mugabe and his fellow
principals in the government of
national unity had the powers to decide on
whether they should call for
by-elections or stick to their agreement that
seats rendered vacant by the
death or expulsion of MPs shall be filled by
the parties holding the seats
in question.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
18/12/2009 00:00:00
AT LEAST six workers
from Grace Mugabe’s dairy farm, Gushungo Dairy Estates,
stormed the company
headquarters of Nestle Zimbabwe demanding that the
company resumes milk
orders terminated in October, it was claimed.
Workers at the Swiss food
conglomerate claimed the six men arrived just
after lunch and demanded to
see “whoever is in charge so that they can
deliver milk”.
One Nestle
employee said the six were driving in a white ERF truck parked
outside the
company’s HQ along Park Lane.
“These guys meant business I tell you,“ the
employee said.
The six men are said to have met with Nestle managing
director Heath Tilley
and finance director, Farai Munetsi, who drove them
out of the premises to
an undisclosed location – thought to be the Meikles
Hotel.
By late Thursday afternoon, neither Tilley nor Munetsi were
available for
comment as they were both said to be in
meetings.
Nestle stopped making milk orders at Gushungo Estates after
being pressured
by foreign rights groups and its business partners who
threatened to boycott
its products.
Nestle was buying 10 to 15
percent of milk processed at its Harare plant
from Mugabe’s farm.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Friday 18
December 2009
JOHANNESBURG - A study into last month's attacks on
foreign nationals at De
Doorns in the Western Cape has fingered labour
brokers as directly
responsible for the tensions that led to the
violence.
Researcher Jean Pierre Misago of the University of the
Witwatersrand's
Forced Migration Studies Programme, who released the study
on Thursday said
Zimbabwean victims of the violence reported that the
xenophobia was the
culmination of tensions between Zimbabwean and South
African labour brokers,
known locally as contractors or
"spanners".
He said there were up to 80 labour brokers in the
grape-growing centre in
the Hex River Valley area, supplying local farmers
with workers at a cost to
each labourer of R5 a day, plus commissions from
the farmers.
"South African contractors, particularly those from the
Xhosa community,
report dissatisfaction at income losses due to Zimbabwean
contractors,"
Misago said.
"Some (interviewees) report that
dissatisfied labour brokers pressured local
leaders and incited local
residents to attack and chase Zimbabweans away.
Such mobilisation was
facilitated by the fact that some contractors are also
ward committee
members," he added.
Although, according to Misago, the study did not
provide conclusive evidence
of incitement to violence, it suggested that any
investigation into labour
brokers' role in the xenophobia should not be
limited to exploitation of
workers and the breaking of labour
laws.
"It must also focus on labour brokers' direct involvement in
fuelling
tensions and triggering the violence by inciting local residents,"
he said.
The study dismissed locals' complaints that Zimbabweans were
"stealing
jobs", because according to Agri Wes-Cape De Doorns attracts
migrant
labourers because of the shortage of local labour and producers'
need for
workers to prepare the crop for harvesting and South Africans
occupy most
seasonal jobs and almost all the better-paid permanent
farmworker positions.
Farmers and the Zimbabweans themselves said
everyone worked for the same
seasonal wage of R60 a day.
The study
cautioned against reintegration of displaced Zimbabweans into the
communities they came from because South African residents and contractors
did not want Zimbabweans back in the settlements.
Misago recommended
that community-level action should not focus on
reintegration, but "building
sustained mechanisms for inclusive and
non-violent conflict
resolution".
Last month some 3 000 Zimbabweans fled informal settlements
in the area as
violence against foreign nationals flared up and have been
living in tents
on a sports field in the town.
Police say there were
no reports of physical violence, allaying fears of a
recurrence of last
year's xenophobic attacks that engulfed most of the
country killing about 60
people and displacing thousands of foreign
nationals. - ZimOnline