Harare’s water woes hit Parirenyatwa

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

PARIRENYATWA General Hospital, the country’s largest referral centre, was
without running water early this week as Harare’s water supply problems
continue.

Units affected by the problem included the intensive care and paediatric
sections with nurses telling patients to bring their own water to the
hospital.

“We are telling patients to bring their own water for use. We are even
requesting them to bring it so that we put some in the life supporting
machines serving their relatives,” said a nurse, who asked not to be named.

Another nurse added: “Parents with their babies admitted here have already
been told to bring their water. We need water to put in sterilisers as well
as for the toilets.”

The hospital’s chief executive Thomas Zigora said Harare’s water supply
problems were not new adding however, that the hospital had a number of
boreholes as back-up.

“The whole city has no water this weekend (and the council) informing people
of that development. (the hospital was only affected at the) weekend but, be
that as it may we have some boreholes at the hospital which we are using as
a backup measure.”

Patients said the problem had left them at risk and called on hospital
authorities to consider discharging them until the supplies are restored.

“We risk contracting more diseases while in hospital. The hospital should
consider discharging us until the problem is addressed,” one patient said.

“How do we use the toilet when there is no water? How can we bath or wash
our hands if the situation is like this? How do we take our pills when we
have not washed our hands?”

The local authority announced last Friday that Harare would experience water
supply problems throughout this week with the northern, eastern and southern
suburbs among the worst affected.

The city council attributed the problem to last week’s shutdown of Morton
Jaffrey Water Treatment Plant after a huge pipe burst at the plant.

NCA referendum challenge ruling deferred, again

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Nomalanga Moyo

27 February 2013

A ruling on the urgent chamber application by the NCA, seeking to stop the
constitutional referendum taking place on March 16th, has been deferred to
Thursday.

Justice Chiweshe who is presiding over the case had been expected to decide
on the case on Wednesday, but this is now the third deferment.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), led by Lovemore Madhuku, wants
the referendum moved to a later date, arguing that the time set aside was
‘inadequate’ for Zimbabweans to review the draft charter before the vote.

The organisation wants the President to give the nation at least two months
to analyse the draft, and for the court to declare unlawful the announcement
made on February 15th giving the date as 16th March.

In an opposing affidavit President Mugabe, through the Attorney General’s
office, is arguing that he is empowered by the Referendums Act to announce
the date, and does not need to justify himself.

Mugabe said it was up to the people of Zimbabwe and not pressure groups like
the NCA to decide whether or not to approve the draft constitution.

He added that that those against the holding of the referendum or the draft
constitution were at liberty to campaign for a ‘No Vote’ rather than
stopping the process.

NCA lawyer Alec Muchadehama insisted that the court challenge was in order
since the President’s ‘proclamations’ affected the rights of citizens.

The NCA has said it would campaign for a ‘No’ vote arguing that the
constitution draft was a political deal between parties in the coalition
government, and that it did not reflect the will of the people.

ZANU PF and the two MDC formations have since endorsed the document which is
set to pave the way for elections later this year.

Courts cannot stop referendum: deputy AG

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

THE courts cannot chnage the March 16 date for the constitutional referendum
set by President Robert Mugabe, deputy attorney general (AG) Prince Machaya
has said.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), led by Lovemore Madhuku, has
approached the High Court in a bid to have the referendum moved to a further
date.

But Machaya told a chamber hearing before Judge President George Chiweshe,
that the current constitution empowered Mugabe to use his discretion over
referendum dates.

"Section 37k of the Constitution allows the President to use his discretion
in determining referendum dates. Adding weight to this, Section 3 of the
Referendum Act spells out that he does not need to justify or explain his
proclamations,” the deputy AG said.

However, NCA lawyer Alec Muchadehama insisted that the court challenge was
in order since the President’s proclamations affected the rights of
citizens.

In papers before the court the NCA has argued that the time set aside for
the referendum was "grossly inadequate" adding the general populace would
not have enough time to review the draft new constitution before the vote.

"The dates for the referendum are too close and we feel the potential voters
will not have time to analyse, study and appreciate the draft,” the
organisation said.

Justice Chiweshe reserved his judgement on the case.

The NCA has since said it would campaign for a ‘No’ vote arguing the draft
new constitution was a political deal between parties to the coalition
government.

Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and the MDC formations have since endorsed the
document which is expected to lead to new elections later in the year.

Ahead of referendum, UN experts call on Zimbabwe to respect fundamental rights

http://www.un.org/

27 February 2013 – Zimbabwe must ensure that fundamental rights such as
freedom of expression and association are respected in the run up to its
constitutional referendum, United Nations experts said today, following
reports of civil society organizations being subjected to searches,
harassment and intimidation by the police.

“In the context of proposed constitutional reforms and the elections, it is
disturbing and shocking to learn that civil society organizations that have
been operating for years, including election monitoring groups which aim to
promote free and fair elections, have been searched by police,” said the
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of
association, Maina Kiai.

“Search procedures must not be applied selectively, and the right to privacy
needs to be respected. Otherwise, the independence of associations and the
safety of their members will be seriously at risk.”

For several months, a number of civil society organizations have been
subjected to searches by police. During these searches, several items,
including files with donor information, annual reports and human rights
documents, have been seized. In addition, many civil society organizations,
particularly those working on human rights issues, have reported being
subjected to physical violence and arbitrary arrests.

“With the referendum less than two weeks away, human rights defenders who
promote participation have a critical role to play,” said the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya.
“They must be protected by the Government and attempts to stifle criticism
must end.”

The experts also voiced their concern at the police’s use of force against,
and arrests of, peaceful protesters taking part, and handing out roses and
teddy bears, in an annual Valentine’s Day protest outside Parliament in
Harare on 14 February.

“The ongoing practice of arrests against the activists could seriously
hamper the right to freedom of expression,” said the Special Rapporteur on
the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue. “The
Zimbabwean authorities must ensure that such measures are applied in
accordance with international standards and everyone is guaranteed the right
to speak freely without fear of persecution, arrest and intimidation.”

Since the official announcement of the date for the referendum – 16 March –
there has been an increase in attacks against civil society actors, and the
three Rapporteurs expressed serious alarm at this development.

“We urge the authorities to take all relevant measures to ensure everyone’s
voice is heard, in view of the recurrence of acts of intimidation and
harassment against those exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful
assembly and of association, which are essential components of democracy,”
they said, adding that they stand ready to provide assistance to contribute
to the protection of fundamental freedoms in Zimbabwe.

Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Human
Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a
specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are
not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

COPAC campaign meetings in full swing

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
27 February 2013

COPAC campaign meetings to canvas for a Yes vote are now in full swing
countrywide, after they started on a low key owing to lack of publicity.

Douglas Mwonzora, the COPAC co-chair for the MDC-T, said they’ve now
deployed teams around the country who are conducting as many as two campaign
meetings a day in different districts. Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa said
the program now seems to be in full swing despite facing teething problems
in the first two days of the exercise.

He said lack of publicity meant people were not aware of meetings or venues
for the campaigns resulting in some areas recording less than five people
per meeting.

‘Things have changed now because all the media, both print and electronic,
are now carrying adverts for the campaign as well as the venues and times.
COPAC officials are now happy with the turnout and progress of the campaign,’
Muchemwa said.

Writing on her Facebook page Jessie Majome, the MDC-T’s deputy Minister of
Women’s Affairs, said she had a fruitful day at a COPAC draft constitution
awareness meeting in Lutumba Beitbridge.

She wrote: ‘I mean, literally fruitful…I didn’t know a baobab tree was so
big that it could shelter all 280 women and about 270 men who attended the
meeting from the searing Lowveld heat.

‘Today I saw more youths than at the Zezani meeting of the previous day. The
meeting was attentive, rapt and lively. JOMIC, traditional leaders and
councillors from both the rural and urban councils attended.’

Majome continued: ‘I explained the draft from the preamble to chapter 9,
while Senator Tambudzani Mohadi, (ZANU PF) took chapters 10 to 18. We
fielded questions, most of which sought clarification on the following
issues, what the public seal is, confirmation that citizens by birth do not
lose their citizenship by acquiring other citizenship, guarantees to the
draft’s implementation, and war veterans’ benefits.

The deputy Minister said she urged the meeting to vote Yes, and asked them
for their attitude to the draft, ‘at which there was acclamation that they
would vote Yes.’

Police block public debate on constitution in Harare

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Violet Gonda
27 February 2013

The police have yet again come under heavy criticism after blocking a public
meeting organized by the Media Centre in Harare on Wednesday. The public
debate on the draft constitution, was to include senior members of ZANU PF,
the MDC formations, ZAPU, Mavambo Dawn/Kusile political parties and the
National Constitutional Assembly.

One of the scheduled speakers, the President of the MDC-99 Job Sikhala, said
he was notified by the Media Center on the morning of the discussion and
told that the police had banned the indaba.

Sikhala told SW Radio Africa he was told the police banned the meeting for a
number of reasons including the issue of how panelists were selected. The
police also said they are “no longer allowing public meetings to be convened
by NGOs outside the arrangements of government.”

Talking about the popularity of meetings arranged by civic groups Sikhala
said: “They are extremely popular. Zimbabweans are anxious to hear how their
country is going to move forward. These are well advertised platforms for
Zimbabweans to express their democratic views and the police officers are
now becoming more and more dangerous in curtailing the democratic discourse
in our country.”

Sikhala urged the NGOs to challenge this latest police ban in the courts and
also said they must “start organizing demonstrations against such
clampdowns.”

Media Centre programs officer Charles Saki confirmed the meeting had been
cancelled even though they had given the police advance notice. The
organisation is planning to organize the event again in a few days.

A law that police frequently use to silence the masses is the repressive
Public Order and Security Act. Recently the parliamentary watchdog, Bill
Watch, issued a report about the MDC-T Mutare Central legislator, Innocent
Gonese, who tried to revive the POSA Amendment bill in the Senate. After
over an hour of debate a vote was taken and Gonese’s motion was rejected by
28 votes to 17. Bill Watch said the vote illustrates ZANU-PF’s domination of
the Senate; the Chiefs who voted followed the ZANU-PF lead.

However, Bill Watch said this is not necessarily the end of the Bill saying:
“Gonese is to table a motion in the House of Assembly asking that the Bill,
as passed by the House in December 2009, be sent to the President for
assent, despite the Senate’s rejection of his motion.”

Constitutional Minister Eric Matinenga, who has called for the suspension of
POSA, says he was surprised to hear that the police had banned the Media
Centre public gathering.

“If this is the position it’s very sad because I had actually been saying
this unpacking of the draft should be done as expansively as possible. I am
concerned if that indeed is the position.”

“In fact as I speak to you I have written a letter to the co-Home Affairs
Ministers, suggesting that during the outreach programme we did not really
apply POSA strictly and there is no reason why that relaxed approach should
not be applied today when we are now seeking to create awareness on the part
of the public about the contents of the constitution,” Matinenga revealed.

The latest development comes as police is escalating their clampdown on
civil society organizations, as the country prepares for crucial elections.
Deputy police commissioner-general responsible for operations, Innocent
Matibiri, told a parliamentary portfolio committee on Home Affairs earlier
this week the police will also target NGOs that have been distributing
shortwave radios in the country and will confiscate radio receivers from
listeners.

According to the state controlled media hundred of radios, which people use
to listen to external radio stations, have been confiscated already and some
distributors arrested across the country. A number of NGOs, such as the
Zimbabwe Peace Project, have fallen victim to police raids and confiscations
of communication equipment.

The move was slammed by many, including the Regional Integration and
International Cooperation Minister Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga who
protested by walking into Tuesday’s cabinet with a radio and is said to have
demanded to know how the receivers are illegal.

Misihairabwi –Mushonga, who is also the MDC Secretary General, had earlier
addressed a meeting in Gwanda where she challenged the police to arrest her
for owning the shortwave receiver.

“I have the little radios here, if the cops want to arrest me they can come.
It’s a right for everybody to listen to information that they want. Surely
how can we have a situation where when you touch a radio you are arrested.
If I had more of them I would have given you and see if they arrest us all
and take us to jail,” said Mushonga.

“Because it is nonsensical that in a country that was liberated we are still
being denied the right to listen to what we want to listen to. We won the
right to listen to whatever we want to listen to because it is there in the
new constitution,” she said.

Daggers out as ex-allies fight over constitution

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

Wednesday, 27 February 2013 10:49
HARARE - Battle lines have been drawn between former allies — MDC formations
and civic society — as the country hurtles towards a constitutional
referendum set for March 16.

Daggers were out at a recent emotive public debate in Harare organised by
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition to allow parties to the power sharing Global
Political Agreement and civic groups to explain why people should vote yes
or no at the referendum.

The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Munyaradzi Gwisai’s
International Socialist Organisation (ISO) and MDC 99, which seem to have
suddenly emerged from the woods, took a dig at their former allies in a
no-holds-barred tirade arguing the new draft is not any different from the
Lancaster House charter.

The groups are now agitating for a rejection of the draft crafted by a
committee of Parliament commonly referred to as Copac.

“We will not support an undemocratic document. It retains the imperial
executive presidency, president ‘wemasimba ose’ who appoints all Cabinet
ministers and most senior State, military and judicial officials and can
unilaterally change laws, dissolve Parliament or declare war.

“I wonder why our comrades in the MDCs are supporting such dictatorship
where the death penalty is abolished only for men over 70 years just to
protect Zanu PF people who committed atrocities against the people. I was
facing the death penalty for watching the Egypt video and the Maengahamas of
this world and some among the Glen View 29 are rotting in jail,” charged
Gwisai.

This was quickly quashed by Copac co-chairperson and MDC spokesperson
Douglas Mwonzora, who argued that the draft was a much better document
compared to the current Constitution.

Mwonzora, supported by Zanu PF and the other MDC formation representatives;
Psychology Maziwisa and Qhubani Moyo respectively said those pushing for the
rejection of the draft were out of touch with the aspirations of the
generality of Zimbabweans.

“It is not true that we are giving people half a loaf as claimed by one
speaker here. We as a party are actually delighted that neither we nor our
coalition colleagues got all they wanted during negotiations and if you add
up what we got it becomes a full loaf for Zimbabweans.

“People will overwhelmingly vote for this document because its contents
though compromised, by and large represent an incremental gain for
democracy,” Mwonzora said in apparent reference to remarks by Mavambo leader
Simba Makoni that Copac had given people half a loaf when they needed it
full.

Comments by Women’s Coalition chairperson Virginia Muwanigwa that women
groups across the political and civil divide were generally happy with the
draft exposed the divisions within civil society, which could scuttle their
chances of successfully lobbying for the rejection of the draft.

MDC 99 president Job Sikhala however, took offence with the draft charter
citing a clause that recognises values of the liberation struggle saying it
would be used against presidential aspirations with no liberation history.

“I will not vote for this constitution for the simple reason that it gives
the president unlimited power and the fact that it forces us to respect the
ideas of the liberation struggle is particularly unpalatable because the
phrase will be used against some of us who were too young to participate in
the war but still harbour presidential ambitions.

“Campaign for your ‘Yes Vote’ using tax payers’ money and we will campaign
against it on our bicycles and we will meet at the ballot,” said Sikhala to
thunderous applause from the crowd.

Clever Bere of the NCA’s “Take Charge” team tasked with rolling out the “No
Vote” campaign warned that people will be giving away their power
permanently by adopting the draft constitution imposed by political parties.

Bere said the new charter unnecessarily creates a bloated government at a
time the economy is bleeding and for that reason it should be rejected.

“While the size of Parliament has been increased, it remains weak even with
a total of 355 MPs.

“Parliament remains a mere talk shop where politicians are just creating
employment for their supporters at the expense of the people. There is no
provision for compelling the State to allocate a specific minimum percentage
of the nation’s revenue to deal with needs of the poor,” Bere said.

Copac is currently rolling out an ambitious programme to educate the people
on the contents of the draft before the referendum, which is just three
weeks away.

Thousands of translated copies are currently being printed and distributed
and opposition political parties have been given 50 each after they had
written to the parliamentary body asking to be part of the exercise. -
Mugove Tafirenyika

MDC-T appeals for SADC intervention

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

THE MDC-T has urged the regional SADC grouping to intervene and help
expedite the implementation of "outstanding" reforms ahead of new elections
this year, accusing Zanu PF deliberately stalling the process.

Speaking to journalists in Harare on Tuesday, MDC-T Secretary General and
Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, said Zanu PF was deliberately blocking
implementation of agreed media and electoral reforms.

“The question is, is there political will? Does Zanu PF want to do this? And
this is why we are calling on SADC, as the guarantors of this agreement, to
say that your baby is now suffering from Kwashiorkor it is not growing,
there is no movement so come and do something,” said Biti.

“All the things that need to be implemented will not require a day if there
is political will. You don’t need more than 30 minutes to appoint a new
board for the Mass Media Commission, you don’t need that. And you don’t need
more than a week, as we have become experts in fast-tracking things, to have
all these issues solved.”

SADC facilitated negotiations for the formation of the coalition government
between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai after
violent elections in 2008.

The regional grouping, represented by South Africa President Jacob Zuma, has
also helped the parties negotiate reforms ahead of new fresh elections, a
process that led to the writing of a new constitution which will be put to a
national referendum on March 16.

But the MDC-T claims Zanu PF has dragged its feet over a raft of other key
reforms although Biti insisted his party would still contest the fresh
elections which Tsvangirai said could be held in July.

“So we are going to go to the elections and we are not going to allow Zanu
PF to go back to its natural way of (doing) things; they are not gods,” he
said.

“We want this election so there is real democracy and real transformation.
The people of Zimbabwe are tired of this coalition government.

“The MDC-T will be on the ballot paper come election time and we will not
allow Zanu PF to use its dirty tactic. Zanu PF is not immune to
international law, even to the domestic laws; they don’t exist in an
isolated world.”

Suspected Maisiri murderers named

http://nehandaradio.com

on February 27, 2013 at 2:19 pm

By Lance Guma

Four Zanu PF activists have been named as having taken part in the murder of
Christpower Maisiri, the 12 year old son of an MDC-T aspiring candidate who
was burnt to death after the hut he and his family was sleeping in was
torched.

Nehanda Radio understands Gilbert Makura (Zanu PF district chairperson for
Village 47), Isaac Dhogo (Dobo), Annah Mumbana and Tendai Gosho (Zanu PF
district chairlady) all strongly linked to Didymus Mutasa, took part in the
arson.

The arsonists have not been arrested. We understand they have also been
fingered in nine politically-motivated violence incidences targeted against
the Maisiri family since 2008. Despite this they have never been arrested.

Mutasa who is the Zanu PF Secretary for Administration was at pains to deny
responsibility, bizarrely claiming that the Maisiri family were Zanu PF
members. The victim’s father Shepherd Maisiri promptly set the record
straight.

“All I can say is that he is a mad man and needs to have his head examined.
To say that he is my friend is a total joke. If he was…he should be here
with me paying his condolences with the rest of the other people gathered
here,” he said.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai will on Thursday join the Maisiri
family and thousands of MDC-T supporters for the burial of Christpowers. The
burial will take place at Dzikiti Village or Village 55 in Headlands.

Christpowers was a Grade 4 pupil at Ruura Primary School. A post-mortem was
carried out at Parirenyatwa hospital but the results have not been released.

To add salt to injury four agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) visited the home of MDC-T official Shepherd Maisiri in Headlands,
while driving a Mazda pickup truck that had no number plates.

Maisiri refused to discuss the incident with them on the grounds that
‘murders’ or ‘crime scenes’ are investigated by the police and not state
security agents. Christpower is said to have survived two similar attacks
before Saturday’s one.

12 year-old Maisiri died of ‘carbon monoxide poisoning’

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tichaona Sibanda
27 February 2013

The results of a post-mortem examination into 12 year-old Christpower
Maisiri’s death show that he died of ‘carbon monoxide poisoning’ after a
raging fire destroyed the family’s home on Saturday.

Christpower will be buried on Thursday in Dzikiti village.

Smoke inhalation is the number one cause of death related to fires. It
damages the body by asphyxiation (lack of oxygen).

It is believed Christpower was sleeping when the fire, thought to have been
caused by a petrol bomb, broke out at his father’s Headlands home. All other
siblings in the same hut were rescued by an elder brother, who unfortunately
failed to reach the grade 4 pupil because of the intense heat and thick
smoke.

Police have said they’re still investigating the cause of fire although
Christpower’s family is treating it as an arson attack, allegedly targeting
his father Shepherd Maisiri, a well known MDC-T official in Headlands.

Following this tragic death the MDC-T has come out guns blazing, taking the
unprecedented step of taking the graphic photos of the charred remains of
Christpower to the weekly Tuesday cabinet meeting, chaired by President
Robert Mugabe.

The party’s secretary-general, Tendai Biti, took the photos and showed them
to Mugabe and other members of the cabinet, and this ignited a heated debate
over the upsurge of political violence in the country.

According to sources, Biti blatantly accused Didymus Mutasa, the ZANU PF MP
for Headlands, of instigating most of the violence against MDC activists in
his constituency.

When Mutasa tried to defend himself, he was told that his constituency has
recorded the highest incidents of political violence, that have never been
investigated.

The MDC-T also blasted the police force, saying that the latest violence is
being fueled by police inaction and partisanship and by a failure on the
part of ZANU PF leaders to take an unequivocal stance against violence.
Biti called on the authorities to hold perpetrators of violence accountable,
starting with those behind the arson attack at the Maisiri home.

‘We hold ZANU PF responsible for the death of Christpower and we
unequivocally hold Didymus Mutasa responsible with the attacks on Maisiri’s
home. We also going to hold the police to account so that they arrest the
culprits,’ Biti added.

There have always been accusations that political violence in the country,
mostly blamed on ZANU PF, is openly encouraged by party leaders. Human
rights activists say the inclusive government should send out a clear
message that violence by activists from any party, including the former
ruling party, will not be tolerated.

But if the police are partisan, who’s going to stop it?

Murdered boy’s chilling story

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

Wednesday, 27 February 2013 12:01

HARARE - SLAIN Christpower Maisiri was born in Radze Mountain in 2000 as his
parents hid from marauding shock-troops loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s
Zanu PF.

On Saturday night, he met his death in a politically-orchestrated arson
attack, again blamed on Zanu PF.

It has been a roller coaster for the 12-year-old boy. Since birth,
Christpower has known no peace.

He watched his mother being raped by a top aide of a local Zanu PF MP,
witnessed their home burnt several times by militia and spent several nights
on the run from “agents of the devil”, as the deadly murderers hunted for
his father Shepherd Maisiri.

After surviving the senseless midnight attack, Christpower’s distraught
mother recounted the torment she has gone through to the Daily News.

“I delivered this son in a mountain because I was fleeing from Zanu PF
activists who wanted to kill me,” the boy’s sobbing mother Beauty, told the
Daily News.

“He has been made to be a sacrificial lamb for the MDC and this constituency
will definitely go to the MDC,” she vowed, leaning on the door of her
makeshift kitchen in the eastern farming area of Headlands.

“I was raped in 2008 by a Zanu PF election agent Lovemore Manenji, my house
was burnt eight times by Zanu PF supporters. I want Mutasa to come out clean
in this matter or else the blood of my son will not rest until the truth is
known about those behind the killing,” she said.

Manenji is serving a 32-year sentence for the rape case.

Staring blankly at her one- roomed cottage where young Christpower met his
death, she says the death of her son has invigorated her to campaign for MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the forthcoming polls with even more vigour.

Christpower met his painful death in a hut he was sleeping in.

His siblings were rescued, while the Ruura Primary School-boy was not so
lucky after the roof caved in, charring him to death.

His mother said she suspected Zanu PF supporters — probably targeting her
husband, Shepherd, who is wrestling for the Headlands Constituency seat with
Didymus Mutasa, the powerful Zanu PF secretary for administration and
minister of State in Mugabe’s office — were behind the attack.

Maisiri, who is squaring off in the MDC primary election with David Tekesha,
has unfurled a comprehensive campaign, and was on the campaign trail the day
his son was killed.

While Mutasa was not picking up his phone yesterday when the Daily News
called him for comment on the latest charges, he insisted on Sunday that
Maisiri was in fact a Zanu PF cadre.

Mutasa said it was “impossible” for his party to be master minders of the
heinous act on Maisiri, claiming he was a Zanu PF official.

“Yes, I know Maisiri. But there is no way he could contest against me when
he is a member of my party. Yes, he comes from Chief Makoni’s area and
resides in headman Dzikiti’s village, but he is not an MDC supporter,” said
Mutasa.

“In any case, I have not received such a report. The only case I heard is
that of three people who died in a road accident in my constituency,” Mutasa
said on Sunday.

Maisiri’s wife — a 40-year-old avid MDC supporter — said she has suffered
enough at the hands of what she claimed were “Zanu PF militants”.

The sobbing mother of six said it is high time the ex-majority party and
their leaders in Manicaland are held accountable for their “satanic acts”.
She said they were acting in a “devilish way”.

“This is Satanism at its highest level, I know that Zanu PF is a legend when
it comes to doing such things, but I can say they have started war against
me,” fumed the apostolic sect member.

“I am going to take the sitting MP to the cleaners, ndirikuda kumudzidzisa
maitiro epolitics muno (I want to teach him how we do politics here), Kana
vaiti ivo vandikaurisa, hapana zvavaita, MDC yavakuzowinner zvino and Mutasa
ngaatogadzirira kuenda kumusha kwake (If they thought that they have
destroyed me, they have done nothing, MDC is now going to win resoundingly
in this area),” she vowed.

She said Zanu PF was doomed through its dastardly actions, adding Mugabe’s
party will “never get any respect from any reasonable person” in the
constituency as it had demonstrated that “it is an anti-people organisation”.

Her husband, Shepherd, said prior to the fatal attack on his home, he had
received death threats directed at him and his family.

He said he had “absolutely no doubt” that the killers came from Zanu PF.

“I have been a problem to Mutasa since 1999 when the MDC was formed,” he
told the Daily News.

“More recently, trouble started when I confronted the MP (Mutasa) asking for
explanations as to how the constituency development fund (CDF) was used.

“We heard that he had given our ward only $200 out of the $50 000 that was
allocated to the entire constituency. I raised that with him but he had no
answer and I suspect that is where all this issue is emanating from,” said
Maisiri.

Police deputy commissioner general Innocent Matibiri told Parliament on
Monday that police were still investigating the matter, with no leads yet.

But the Maisiri family says it has furnished Inyati Police Station with
names of people it suspects were behind the heinous act.

MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti on Monday told a news conference at
Harvest House, the MDC headquarters in central Harare, that Zimbabweans
should not be subjected to the same “mini-genocide similar to that
experienced in 2008.

“If we do that, we would be an irresponsible party,” he said.

However, in a ZBC broadcast last night, Zanu PF denied responsibility over
the Headlands violence.

“Police are investigating the matter and we hope they get to the bottom of
the story timeously and as diligently as possible because it is in the
public interest to do so.

“Zanu PF does not condone violence and President Mugabe has relentlessly
called for tolerance and non-violence. There is no reason to believe that
Zanu PF members can openly defy Cde Mugabe’s efforts to make sure Zimbabwe
holds a free and fair harmonised election,” the statement said.

Christpower will be buried in Headlands tomorrow, joining a lengthening
party roll of honour comprising those who perished in the fight for
democratic change.

Tsvangirai is expected to attend the burial. - Xolisani Ncube

The MDC Today - Issue 523

http://www.mdc.co.zw

Wednesday 27 February 2013

A post-mortem carried out on Christpowers Simbarashe Maisiri shows that he
died as a result of excessive inhalation of carbon monoxide. The post-mortem
was carried out by a pathologist at Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare.
Christpowers will be buried tomorrow at Dzikiti village or Village 55 in
Headlands.

Christpowers died on Saturday night after the hut he was sleeping in was set
on fire by known Zanu PF thugs. His siblings, James, 17, Munashe, 15,
Panashe and their sister, Tinotenda, 9, survived.

The boy’s father, Shepherd Maisiri is the MDC Headlands district organising
secretary. The arsonists have not been arrested although they have been
identified. They have been identified as; Gilbert Makura, the Zanu PF
district chairperson of Village 47, Isaac Dobo, Annah Mumbana, the Zanu PF
district chairlady and Tendai Gosho. The four have strong links to the Zanu
PF MP for Headlands, Didymus Mutasa.

Meanwhile, The Cuban government has finally authorised a Cuban pathologist
to appear at the High Court as a State witness in the trial of 29 MDC
members who are facing false charges of murdering a police officer in Glen
View, Harare in 2011.

The trial, which is before Justice Chinembiri Bhunu has been postponed
several times after the pathologist, Dr Alveiro-Aguero could not appear in
court as he has diplomatic status and needs authority from the Cuban
government to appear in court.

He is the final witness in the murder trial. However, the date of when he
will appear in court as witness is yet to be confirmed as a Spanish
translator has to be secured first because Dr Alveiro is not fluent in
English. The matter has been postponed to tomorrow.

Dr Alveiro-Aguero carried out the post-mortem on the late Petros Mutedza.

My voice is in: My vote is Yes!!!

MPs demand Mugabe action

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Chengetayi Zvauya, Parliamentary Editor
Wednesday, 27 February 2013 11:14
HARARE - The brutal killing of a 12-old-boy in Headlands took centre stage
in Parliament yesterday with MDC members accusing President Robert Mugabe of
failing to stop political violence.

Other MPs said Mugabe’s calls for peace are genuine but his followers no
longer listen to him because of his advanced age.

Debating on the presidential speech, legislators took the opportunity to
denounce political violence that occurred last weekend in Headlands and
Hurungwe where Zanu PF supporters ran amok committing arson resulting in the
death of Christpower Maisiri, son of an aspiring MDC MP set to challenge
Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa in Headlands.

MDC MP for Zaka Central Harrison Mudzuri described Mugabe as a “hypocrite”
who should control his party members causing violence.

“Mugabe is saying he is against political violence but there is a lot of
indiscipline among his party members as we are beginning to experience
horrific incidents of political violence ahead of the referendum and
elections.

“His same party member Sarah Mahoka tasted her own medicine after being
attacked by party youths. We also denounce those acts of violence,” said
Mudzuri.

Hurungwe East MP Mahoka was attacked by Zanu PF youths at a rally resulting
in her being hospitalised.
MDC MP for Bikita South, Varandeni Jani said Zanu PF MPs no longer listened
to Mugabe’s advice because of his advanced age.

“Zanu PF members no longer listen to him because he is old.

“He speaks of peace in Parliament but when his MPs go out, they instigate
violence because they know he is an old man and he cannot do anything to
them,” said Jani.

Eddie Cross, MDC MP for Bulawayo South who visited Maisiri’s family
yesterday, said what he saw was horrific.

“This is the 9th such incident I have witnessed. I visited the homestead
yesterday and these are absolutely unspeakable acts of violence.

“This is not a homestead of rich people but poor people with no recourse,”
said Cross.

Zanu PF legislators objected to the MDC MPs statements, saying Mugabe did
not support violence and party members still respect the 89-year-old.

Zanu PF MP for Zvishavane-Runde, Larry Mavima said he was disappointed by
the negative labelling of the president.

“I am disappointed that some members are calling the president a hypocrite.
Some of us are still inspired by him and we still respect him as he gives us
direction. We know that there is violence within MDC despite the call by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, but we in Zanu PF have never called him a
hypocrite. Let’s preach about peace without insulting our leaders,” said
Mavima.

MPs across the political divide took turns to denounce political violence
and called on the police to arrest the perpetrators as the country prepares
for a referendum on March 16 and harmonised elections, possibly in June.

Political violence: Mugabe demands arrests

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

26/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has expressed concern over the increase in incidents
of political violence and demanded police arrest the perpetrators as
tensions increases ahead of next month’s constitutional referendum and fresh
polls later in the year.

“The President told the Commissioner-General of the Police (Augustine
Chihuri) that police must account for all cases of politically-motivated
violence regardless of the status of those involved,” Mugabe’s spokesman,
George Charamba said Wednesday.

“The President said he does not tolerate violence as the country prepares
for the referendum. He warned parties and some individuals against drawing
easy conclusions to incidents of violence ahead of police investigations.”

Mugabe’s remarks come after an arson attack on the home of an MDC-T official
in Headlands, near Rusape, the politician's 12-year-old son.
The MDC-T has blamed Zanu PF for the attack, claiming it was one of 120
incidents of violence against its supporters recorded so far this year.

Zanu PF denies its supporters were involved and Mugabe warned against hasty
decisions as police investigations continue.

“The President said it does not always follow that whoever was responsible
for violence was sent by a political party. Some people perpetrate violence
without being sent by anyone,” Charamba said.

Mugabe, who has not hidden his annoyance at sharing power with the MDC-T
after violent clashes rendered the 2008 vote inconclusive, has repeatedly
called for peaceful campaigns ahead of this year’s elections.

But MDC-T secretary general and Finance Minister Tendai Biti claimed that a
faction in Zanu PF wanted to intimidate and instil fear in the electorate.

"Zanu PF intends to harvest fear in the 2013 elections," he told reporters
on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, deputy national police spokesman, Oliver Mandipaka said
investigations into Headlands attack were continuing.
“It would be premature for us as police to say it was politically motivated
or political violence in the absence of concrete evidence that we can have
at our disposal after thorough investigations,” he said.

“We have since summoned our forensic scientists to attend the scene to
establish the cause of the fire. (But) there is a high possibility that the
bags of fertilizers and tobacco chemicals (which were in the hut) could have
exploded during the burning process.”

ConCourt to hear Zimbabwe application

http://www.iol.co.za/

February 27 2013 at 08:46pm
By SAPA

Johannesburg - The Constitutional Court will on Thursday hear argument on
whether South African courts can enforce rulings made by the SADC tribunal
against Zimbabwe.

The appeal came about after the Southern African Development Community
Tribunal ruled in favour of Zimbabwean farmers who challenged that country's
land reform policy in 2007.

Zimbabwe's government was ordered to protect the farmers' ownership of their
land and to pay compensation for farms which had already been confiscated.

Zimbabwean officials ignored two of the tribunal's orders. The farmers then
approached the High Court in Pretoria to have the orders enforced in South
Africa.

The High Court ordered that certain properties owned by the Zimbabwean
government in Cape Town be seized.

Zimbabwe approached the High Court in Pretoria to have the ruling revoked.
The application was denied.

Zimbabwe then asked the Supreme Court of Appeal to dismiss the judgement.
This application was also dismissed.

The country's officials then approached the Constitutional Court to argue
that, amongst other things, protocol does not allow for a judgement obtained
against Zimbabwe to be enforced in South Africa. - Sapa

Zim literacy levels exaggerated: Coltart

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

Wednesday, 27 February 2013 12:01

BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe's “exaggerated” literacy rate by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), has caused complacency leading to lower pass
rates and standards in schools, minister of Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture, David Coltart has said.

Speaking during a book launch at the Bulawayo Art Gallery recently, Coltart
said his ministry had been in denial mode regarding dropping standards,
which have resulted in a string of poor results, but had been jolted to face
the reality.

“UNDP released statics a few years ago that Zimbabwe had the highest
literacy rate in Africa and that was a disservice to us. I think it lulled
us into a sense of false security regarding the state of our education,”
Coltart said.

Coltart said he has been criticised for questioning the sincerity of the
results since the UNDP based performance on a pupil’s first four years in
school without taking cognisance of other years spent at school.

Data presented to him by educational officers in every province does not
tally with that of UNDP, spelling serious problems in the troubled sector,
he said.

“The (then) provincial education director for Manicaland Peter Muzawazi did
a study of Grade Five children and was horrified by the results. He
established that the average literacy level of Grade Five children was
actually that of Grade One or Two,” Coltart said.

Zimbabwe, according to the UNDP, has the highest literacy rate in Africa.
The much touted literacy rate has somewhat not translated into good results
for school going pupils ,where the 2013 Ordinary level results revealed that
the ‘O’ Levels pass rate dropped from 19,5 percent to 18,4 percent, while
the ‘A’ Level rate rose from 67,21 percent in 2012 to 82.09 percent. -
Nyasha Chingono

Broke Zimbabwe finds economic saviour

http://www.theafricareport.com

Posted on Wednesday, 27 February 2013 16:01

Broke Zimbabwe has turned its eyes to the oil rich United Arab Emirates, as
it seeks money for various economic activities.

With the country's finance minister revealing that the southern African
nation only had $217 in its coffers after paying public servants last
January, Zimbabwe is looking just about to anyone to bankroll its economy.

Enter His Royal Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr al Qassimi, ruler of Ras Al
Khaimah, unknown to most Zimbabweans, he is being feted by the state and
touted as the next Messiah.

We have come here to extend our hand to all of you people of Zimbabwe… We
have come here not to teach you
The Sheikh is in the country to "explore business opportunities" and now
everyone is bowing to him in the hope he can throw a few petro-dollars their
way.

First in line was the tourism ministry, which is desperate for money to host
a United Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly in August.

Other avenues to raise money for the summit have so far failed and Sheikh
Bin Saqr al Qassimi could not have visited at a better time.

A beaming tourism minister, Walter Mzembi said the Sheikh had "expressed his
country's commitment to funding some of the logistics", for the summit.

The promise included the provision of resources for the procurement of
luxury vehicles.

"We had a fruitful meeting and what is exciting is their interest in the
Victoria Falls.

"They have also expressed commitment to funding the logistical part of the
UNWTO," Mzembi said.

"They have asked us to prepare a proposal and the deal is struck."

Sheikh al Qassimi also held a string of close door meetings with various
cabinet ministers.

The Sheikh is the boss of the biggest pharmaceutical company in the northern
hemisphere while the Emirates are the biggest financial hub in the Arab
peninsula.

In Zimbabwe at the invitation of Vice President Joice Mujuru, al-Qasimi and
his business delegation have interests in mining, agriculture, commerce, the
hospitality industry, energy and construction.

Apart from tourism pledge, al Qasimi struck deals with other ministries
believed to be worth more than $5 billion.

"We have come here to extend our hand to all of you people of Zimbabwe... We
have come here not to teach you, but rather put to you what we have learnt.
It is up to you to take what you like," al Qassimi pontificated.

Parliament partners human rights lawyers

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

Wednesday, 27 February 2013 10:22
HARARE - Parliament has partnered human rights lawyers to capacitate
legislators in the field of human rights work.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) and Parliament comes as government ups its crackdown on
pro-democracy groups.

Signed on Monday, the MoU aims at lessening the burden on Parliament on the
capacity-building of MPs in order to bridge the skills and knowledge gap.

“We believe allowing civil society organisations to interact with
Parliament, and regularly consulting with them, are important ways of
boosting MPs’ ability to represent their constituencies, as well as ensure
that national planning and budgeting processes reflect the needs of the
people.

“We are genuinely committed to fostering a culture of human rights in our
nation. We believe a culture of respecting human rights, the rule of law and
fundamental freedoms begins in this house and cascades down to the
communities,” said ZLHR board chairperson Andrew Makoni after the signing
ceremony.

Makoni said the cooperation between Parliament and the ZLHR has resulted in
the compilation of a human rights manual which will be used during the
induction of new legislators.

ZLHR hopes the MoU will help in building confidence and ensuring that the
human rights campaigning group is not treated by government with disdain.

“This MoU ushers in a new era in which rights-based institutions such as
ZLHR will not be looked at with suspicion but recognised as genuine partners
in national development.

The signing ceremony was attended by speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo,
deputy Senate president Naison Ndlovu, clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma and
ZLHR executive director Irene Petras.

For over three years now, ZLHR has worked with Parliament’s portfolio
committees on Defence and Home Affairs, Peace and Security, and the Thematic
Committee on Human Rights.

Civil servants lose out to referendum

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

27.02.13

by Edgar Gweshe

Civil servants, currently at loggerheads with the government over the issue
of low salaries, are concerned that nothing will be done to improve their
situation now that the government is preoccupied with mobilising financial
resources for the referendum, elections and the United Nations World Tourism
Organisation General Assembly all scheduled for this year.

Recently, President Robert Mugabe said the government would be banking on
its natural resources to raise the $200 million required. Currently, the
lowest earning civil servant in Zimbabwe earns $296 a month. The Poverty
Datum Line is pegged at $600 a month.

The government recently announced a 5,3 percent inflation related salary
increment for civil servants, which the latter said was nothing to write
home about.

To make matters worse, there has been no meaningful engagement between the
government and civil servants for the past 12 months due to the lack of a
representative body recognised by unions and the government.

The Apex Council, a body that brings together all civil servants unions in
salary negotiations with the government has been rocked by leadership
wrangles following elections held in August.

There are allegations among teacher unions loyal to the current Apex Council
leadership that the PSA is running a parallel structure by approaching the
government as a separate entity over salary negotiations.

Apex Council Chairperson, David Dzatsunga told The Zimbabwean in an
interview that in as much as civil servants were pushing for better
salaries, there was no end in sight to their problems.

“The issue of civil servants salaries is the least of the government’s
priorities. The government is struggling to raise money for the referendum,
elections and the UNWTO General Assembly.

He predicted that civil servants might have to wait until after the
forthcoming elections for a review of their salaries.

The President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, Takavafira
Zhou, admitted that fighting for an upward review of civil servants’
salaries would be an uphill task.

“I believe that 2013 is the best year to fight for our salaries because it
is only before an election that you can push the government to increase
civil servants’ salaries because they need our votes,” he said.

Economic analyst, John Robertson, said the government was largely
incapacitated to increase civil servants’ salaries.

“The civil servants’ salaries can only rise if tax revenues increase.
Already, the civil servants are being paid a bigger percentage of the total
tax revenues than any other country in Southern Africa. Also, we have a huge
number of civil servants and this has created a huge wage bill,” said
Robertson.

Digital terrestrial TV launched in Zimbabwe

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com

Staff Reporter 30 minutes ago

HARARE - A new digital terrestrial television channel, Go-TV, which is the
only pay television provider, has been launched in Harare at the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation.

According to a Zanu PF loyal website The Zimbabwe Mirror, Go-TV, which is
already in a number of African countries but was launched in Zimbabwe this
Wednesday, is seen as the first step to make terrestrial pay television
services available in the country.

Speaking at the official launch of pay television service provider, the
Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu said Go-TV
Zimbabawe will roll out digital terrestrial television service starting with
urban centres.

He added that Transmedia, which is a shareholder in Go-TV, would use
proceeds from this joint venture to expand the network to the rest of the
country as per its mandate.

“Africa has successfully launched this technology in other African
countries. MultiChoice has been providing satellite broadcast services
through franchise held by a local company called Skynet and this joint
venture is a giant step in the right direction. This is an opportunity to
reach out to more audiences,” Minister Shamu said.

MultiChoice Zimbabwe Chief Executive Officer, Lovemore Mangwende, whose
company’s shareholding structure is 60% in Go-TV partnership, said Go-TV
will provide a broad range of content, cutting across news, current affairs,
general entertainment, documentaries, music, sports and a host of other
household channels.

“Some of the most exciting African and international channels that will be
available to Go-TV subscribers include ZBC, Africa Magic, Select Sport,
Discovery Channel, Aljazeera, Disney Junior and Channel O, to mention but a
few,” Mangwende said.

ZBC Group Chief Executive Officer, Happison Muchechetere said ZBC will
benefit in a number of ways with the joint venture, adding that the
partnership will ensure that subscribers enjoy future channel expansion.

“This partnership will help us as well in the digitalisation process, whose
deadline is August 2013,” Mr Muchechetere said.

The shareholding structure of Go-TV is 60% to MultiChoice, 30% to the
government of Zimbabwe through Transmedia while Skynet has a 10%.

The terrestrial television channel is also available in Ghana, Kenya,
Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.

Victory for Manicaland in long-awaited judgment

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com

Anglican province regains properties from breakaway bishop, followers
By Bellah Zulu | February 27, 2013

[Anglican Communion News Service] The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe has ruled in
favor of the Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) in a
legal case involving the province and breakaway former bishop of the
Anglican Diocese of Manicaland Elson Jakazi.
“We are glad to share with you the good news that the long-awaited judgment
is out and it is in our favor,” the Rev. Luke Chigwanda, diocesan secretary,
told ACNS. “Thank you for your prayers, and may you please continue to pray
for us as we get into the last phase of moving into our properties. Pray
especially for the bishop as he does the paperwork to facilitate evictions.”
In 2007, Jakazi and his supporters broke away from the province and took
over the cathedral, churches and many other church properties. But a final
ruling by the Supreme Court confirmed that Jakazi and his supporters had
withdrawn from the church “in their individual capacities.”
It added, “The diocese could not be withdrawn by the applicants [Jakazi and
supporters] from its first respondents [CPCA].”
Bishop of Manicaland Julius Makoni said he was very happy with the outcome.
“The Supreme Court’s judgment in our favor brings an end to uncertainty in
the diocese. Now we know where we stand and can start the process of
rebuilding the properties,” he said.
The diocese’s experience was “difficult and excruciating but, being a people
of faith, we knew there was a purpose in all this and knew there was light
at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We knew that God would not abandon us
and that we would win at the end of the day.”
In November 2012, the Anglican Diocese of Harare also won a long-running
legal battle with excommunicated former bishop Dr. Nolbert Kunonga when the
Supreme Court of Zimbabwe ruled that CPCA was the lawful owner of all
diocesan church properties.
Reacting to the most recent ruling, CPCA Archbishop Albert Chama said the
battle in Manicaland had “been a long, rough road, but it’s a joy to the
province since, in the end, we have seen the victory and justice has finally
been done.”
“The victory brings a different dimension to the faith and the missions of
the church,” he added. “People never had the freedom to worship and yet the
church continued to grow.”
Makoni said he appreciated the support given by the rest of the Anglican
Church.
“The Anglican Communion cares. One part was suffering, but the amount of
support that we got was amazing,” he said. “We maybe small, but we were
never left alone by the communion.”
“We should be gracious in victory,” he added. “We should not gloat and
should stay focused because we have learnt through hope and faith that there
is victory at the end.
“We should now look with compassion on our brothers on the other side and
let them know we are the light and they should come and join us.”

African migrants pay high prices to send money home

Hot Seat: Heated panel discussion on Zim draft constitution

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

SW Radio Africa transcript

Broadcast: Thursday 21 February 2013

Violet Gonda’s guests on the Hot Seat programme are Zanu PF’s COPAC
co-chairman Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, political commentator Professor Brian
Raftopoulos and the General Secretary of the ZCTU Concerned Affiliates,
Raymond Majongwe. They discuss why they will vote YES or NO at the
constitutional referendum next month. Political parties were fighting over
every clause in the draft constitution but suddenly everything changed and
they started agreeing. What changed? Did President Mugabe really say his
ZANU PF party might change the constitution if he wins the election?

GONDA: Let me start with Mr Mangwana – you are encouraging Zimbabweans to go
and vote on March 16th to vote for this new draft constitution – why do you
think this is a better constitution?

MANGWANA: I think this is a very good document; it has an extensive and
comprehensive Bill of Rights – covering political, economic, social and
cultural rights. It deals in finality the issue of the land; it provides a
government, which has checks and balances, clear separation of powers
between the executive, the legislation and judiciary. And it deals with
issues of transitional institutions; it provides for devolution of power and
also creates a democratic system where everyone can participate. It also
provides for local communities to enjoy the fruits of whatever natural
resources are in their areas, which is a new feature in this particular
constitution. I consider it is a serious improvement; there are a lot of
matters dealing with gender balance, with creating special seats for women.
We are also introducing a senate which is almost 50/50 in terms of males and
females representation in there. So I think it’s a very good document.

GONDA: Mr. Majongwe, it sounds like the perfect document – why are you
saying you will vote NO and what critical areas are you concerned with as a
labour movement?

MAJONGWE: Yah I think Mr Mangwana is really speaking from his Zanu PF
position. What he is basically telling the nation is that that is a Zanu PF
document. For some of us who are in labour it is going to be very difficult
for us to be convinced that this document is a people’s document because it
is not. It was not written by the people, it is a document that is coming
from the top down to us. It is being forced onto us. It is unfortunate that
the MDC-T and the MDC led by Mutambara and Ncube have also decided to
connive to cheat the people of Zimbabwe into making us believe that this
document is what we were waiting for. This document is a fraudulent
document. It is being thrown to people but I think some Zimbabweans will
stand up and say we are going to vote NO because it does not carry the
proper message and it is not properly packaged.

GONDA: But Mr Majongwe besides your general concerns that it’s not people
driven, what about the actual contents of the document? Do you have any
specific issues that you are concerned with?

MAJONGWE: Surely yes. I will start by saying workers don’t have the right to
strike in that document because what they give to us with the right hand,
they take with the left. They are basically trying to lie to us that we have
a right to strike, they turn around and say to us, they are going to label
some of those things that we want as ‘essential services’ and who is going
to be sitting to say this is essential service – point one. Point number
two – collective bargaining is basically mentioned in the document in
Section 55 but if you go to Section 203, it’s not there because the fixing
of salaries is then deposited in the hands of the President, the minister
who will then determine this. So where is the collective bargaining if the
fixing of salaries is then going to be left to the President?

The other point that also bothers us as workers is you are going to be told
that as a civil servant you cannot be office bearers of any political party,
which we find quite shocking in that at the end of the day many of the
people who are currently in cabinet or in government are former civil
servants but they are turning around to say anybody who is a civil servant
cannot stand up and be taken as an office holder in a political party. So as
far as we are concerned we are simply going to vote NO. For instance there
is no right for jobs or economic empowerment, there’s no right to education,
grant loans, the youth quota, and all these things are not there. For
instance the issue of the living wage, it’s definitely not there.

GONDA: Professor Raftopoulos, I understand that you will vote YES – can you
tell us why and also you were in the National Constitutional Assembly when
it voted NO in 2000 so what has changed?

RAFTOPOULOS: Well I think the first thing to point out is that this
constitution was a central part of the mediation process. It was always
therefore going to be a compromise document and part of a broader process of
trying to establish the conditions for a free and fair elections – which was
the original objective of the SADC mediation. There’s clearly things in the
constitution which are problematic; there’s also things which I think
establish a very good basis for moving forward and I think that as part of a
long term process of discussion between the parties which was established
through the mediation, it’s a step forward and one should look at it as
that.
In terms of the differences, I think the 1990s, the conditions were very
different; of course we were fighting for issues of process but it was also
the time as I said when we were also looking towards challenging, in a
sense, state power, looking to look for bringing in to being a new political
dispensation and therefore the challenges, the issues were different. The
state of the civic movement, the emerging political party was different. At
the current moment we have three political parties which have been involved
in mediation after a long protracted process which has been guaranteed by
SADC and the AU and has produced a document which I think provides some step
forward in moving us out of the current impasse. I don’t think this will be
the last word on the constitution but I do think that it helps to move us
forward.

GONDA: Which areas would you say are problematic?

RAFTOPOULOS: Well I think for example devolution, clearly there’s a really
watered down section on devolution and I think many, many people especially
in certain parts of the country would have expected a stronger position
around devolution. There’s also the old issue of concentration of power in
the presidency which continues to be a problem but as I said also there’s
issues of checks and balances, new commissions, new areas of change within
the judiciary particularly the Prosecuting Authority, a strong Bill of
Rights so there are areas where some things can move forward and there’s no
way that any one party was going to get everything it wanted out of this
transitional discussion, out of this discussion which came out of a
compromise and I think one has to look at it through that lens and find ways
to move forward out of this process.

GONDA: What about the people? What do they get from this especially when the
president said a few weeks ago that this was a document that was crafted by
the political parties which some have said is in violation of the GPA?

RAFTOPOULOS: I think what the GPA stated was this would be a parliamentary
process, parliamentary-led process and that there would be consultation.
There was I suppose a certain level of consultation, not as much as many
would have wanted and certainly issues that were brought up in the
consultation may not have been placed in the context of the constitution.
But again that was always going to be a negotiated thing; not everything
that people said could be included; it was going to be a negotiated issue
between the political parties – that was clear from the beginning. I think
it would have been naive to expect it would have been any other way given
the political compromise that emerged after 2008.

GONDA: Mr. Mangwana – the National Constitutional Assembly says that with
regards to executive powers this constitution gives too much power to the
President. Is it better or worse than the current constitution?

MANGWANA: Ah well there’s a lot of consultation between the president and
other arms of government but let me correct something first – the President
is being misquoted for saying that the document is to be negotiated. We were
negotiating conflicting positions coming from the people; we were not
negotiating party positions. People were saying things which are
contradictory therefore it was necessary for us to say which of the two
should we put into the constitution and that process then required us to
negotiate. We were simply not negotiating from the abstract – we were
negotiating, basing our negotiations on the outcome of outreach, of what
people had said. Right that aside, the current executive authority is shared
between the President and his cabinet. There are things the President cannot
do on his own which of necessity he has to work with his cabinet. He can
also not make certain appointments without consulting the Standing Rules and
Orders committee of Parliament – so there is that checks and balances
existing in the current draft.

GONDA: Mr. Majongwe, can you come in on the issue of the outreach programme
because many of your colleagues in civil society have complained that many
people were not consulted and the views of the people were not included in
this draft constitution.

MAJONGWE: I think the most important thing here is Mr. Mangwana is being
very conservative with the truth. He cannot tell us that the views that they
were grappling with were the people’s views when they basically were asking
their parties, their people to regurgitate their party position at all these
outreach hearings. A lot of the positions that were then brought up for
discussion were well choreographed, well discussed and agreed upon positions
that people in the rural areas were told to come and produce as their own.
So if these views are then carried from wherever that will not make these
views the views of the people, they are still party positions. Both Zanu and
MDC had their positions within their own membership and these were the
positions that were brought to the table for discussion.
So as far as I am concerned and as far as the constituency that I represent
is concerned, because we are the teachers we know exactly what was happening
because these things were happening in and around schools. And we know that
the people who were coming, were coming to represent specific political
presentations. As far as the issues that he’s raising, the President has all
the authority – it’s not like there are going to be any checks and
balances – the President has all the executive authority in terms of running
this country.
So as far as we are concerned we don’t want to be lied that the President
will share power, will be in consultation with cabinet – all those things
don’t exist as far as this document. And we must also be able to stand up
and say fine if this is what the people in Zanu PF and the MDC have connived
to agree to want to pass through our throats, we are also going to stand up
and say we don’t agree because we are citizens of this country.
I just want to add one exciting point that we also observed in this
particular process – the issue of land. Land has almost been given back to
the people who already have it. They are going to compensate the capitalist
system, they are going to compensate the property of those guys who have
always had this land and at the end of the day I would want the MDC people
to be around and tell us where exactly are they going to come in with regard
to the issue of land because as far as I am concerned Zanu PF got everything
that they wanted in so far as protecting the land that they took from 2000.

GONDA: Mr. Mangwana can you comment, in particular on the issue of the land,
and can you comment on compensation for farm workers?

MANGWANA: Ah what compensation for farm workers? When the land was taken
away from the whites and given to the new black farmers and the same workers
were taken over for employment by the new farmers so there’s no need for any
compensation to talk about. But as far as land reform is concerned everyone
was invited to participate in the land reform programme. Those who were then
in the opposition thought that it was a political hoax and they didn’t
participate. So it is their fault! This is a historical event, which has
already taken place and it is irreversible! Whoever has got land has got
land, who doesn’t have land has no land! But I if there is any land, which
is going to be given it will be given decently and every citizen will be
allowed to participate. So I don’t know why Majongwe is complaining. If he
wanted a piece of land he should have joined the queue!

MAJONGWE: That is where the tragedy is! That is where the tragedy is! Are we
then going to say we are going to compensate the white farmers who left and
the black people who were working and toiling for nothing are just going to
be condemned and are going to be inherited from the white farmer to the
black farmer who is not paying salaries? That is unfair! And as long as we
are going to be arguing for black empowerment, these blacks – the workers –
must be compensated just like you are going to compensate the whites for
owning the land that was not theirs!

GONDA: Professor Raftopoulos can you come in and also your reaction to the
issue of property rights because the constitution allows anyone to take land
and any business, if I’ve read it correctly? What can you say about this?

RAFTOPOULOS: Yah I think what the constitution does is consolidate what Zanu
PF has done in terms of the land. I think you won’t get all the
reconciliation on the land question through the constitution. This land
process has produced many contradictory results. As recent research shows,
it hasn’t been the complete failure people thought it was but at the same
time it hasn’t ended the land question. It’s raised a whole series of new
issues, which are going to confront Zimbabweans throughout – for the coming
decades. So this issue hasn’t been resolved and there are harder questions
ahead. Questions which should have been resolved through the land audit,
which hasn’t happened. So I think there are still a lot of issues around the
land which wouldn’t necessarily be dealt with simply through the
constitution – issues which will have to be dealt with through legislation
coming afterwards and through political and technical processes that need to
take place in the aftermath of what has happened.

GONDA: This is the other question that I was going to ask you and since Mr.
Mangwana is here we will also ask him if he can confirm because there are
reports saying that President Mugabe has said the constitution will be
changed if his party wins, and so Professor Raftopoulos I’m asking why
should Zimbabweans always do things in half measures especially when there’s
a strong chance that the constitution maybe be reformed after the general
election?

RAPFTOPOULOS: Well… (interrupted)

MANGWANA: I think the question is being misunderstood. He was explaining a
legal position that there is a clause, which allows the legislator to amend
any clauses in the constitution if it has a two-thirds majority. That’s a
legal position that the constitution is not cast in stone. If anyone is
unhappy with any clauses, which are in there, they make the necessary
lobbying; they can have those amended by any government which is elected
after the elections. He is not saying as soon as Zanu PF wins they are going
to amend the same draft. I did not hear him say that and I was at the
meeting when he made that statement.

GONDA: Yes I was going to ask you if you could confirm that but Professor
Raftopoulos can you also give us your thoughts on this?

RAFTOPOULOS: Yes I think Mr Mangwana is right on that – it is a legal
position. Either party who would win an election and have a majority could
effectively make changes in the constitution with a sufficient majority. So
I think that is a legal position and it’s clear that as we go forward there
are certain issues that will be tackled again. Issues that parties might
find that were unsatisfactorily dealt with in the compromise document that
will arise again. This is a document that will continue to be contested
because it was a highly political process – a political process which came
out of a highly conflictual situation.

GONDA: Mr. Majongwe – the political parties were fighting over every clause
in this draft but everything seemed to have changed suddenly and they
started agreeing and it took Parliament a day to adopt the constitution and
a date was immediately announced for the referendum. Are you surprised that
this whole process is now being fast-tracked?

MAJONGWE: My conscience seems to be telling me that if all of a sudden a
crocodile and a fisherman start agreeing that they’re going to be doing
fishing together then there should be a very serious problem somewhere. I’m
actually baffled that all of a sudden why were we fighting if these two
parties have suddenly realized that they need one another? Why did we lose
so many lives if suddenly Mugabe, Tsvangirai, Ncube and Mutambara can sit
and shepherd this country out of the mud that they are claiming that they
are doing? What has been the problem all along?

What makes us very suspicious is that when we look back we are quite worried
that the interests of the people who are working – the farm workers we are
talking about, the civil servants that we are talking about, the vendors –
they have no stake in the whole process. Those people who committed the
atrocities are scot-free; they will not be touched. The women who committed
atrocities will not, the young activist who belong to several other
processes are the ones who are going to be dealt with in this constitution.

We are very worried and very disturbed and I think it is out of years of
experience that the MDC was completely whitewashed and hoodwinked into
believing that the land issue has been solved when in actual effect Zanu PF
has fortified and strengthened their position on the land issue and have
taken it completely. Because on the issue of land – they’ve actually gone
and refined it and said the minerals under the land or in the land will
belong to those who own the land. This means as far as this situation is
concerned, even if the MDC wins, they will not control the mines, they will
not control the land because already those people who are owning the land
have full rights over it. We are also sadly going to compensate the
exploitative commercial farmers and we are concentrating and protecting
foreign interests ahead of the people who have been toiling on this land and
I’m actually very disappointed in the MDC!

GONDA: There are observers who say many in the civil society who have been
traditional supporters of the MDC-T in particular, know there is a problem
with this draft document but don’t actually have the guts to go against the
MDC. Is this true?

MAJONGWE: I can’t speak for them but the most important thing is let the
truth judge us, let time judge us and I think I would rather stand with very
few people in one corner than go and join a bigger group because the
majority does not mean right. Even if the MDC is going to win elections and
condemn us and say to us you did not support our cause, you are not going to
be part of our processes, so be it.

GONDA: Mr Mangwana why are you hurrying this draft or this process through?
Even the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, who will administer the referendum,
wants at least 60 days.

MANGWANA: We are not hurrying anything, this process has taken more than
four years and in any event we are not, as COPAC, we are not responsible for
setting the dates of the referendum. We did our work as instructed by the
Global Political Agreement – we reported to Parliament and tabled our report
to Parliament. Then from then on the executive has taken over, they’ve set
the date for the referendum and everything follows the executive orders.

GONDA: Well the NCA says 30 days is not enough and even the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission has said that it needs at least 60 days – so do you
think it should be extended?

MANGWANA: That is the matter, which is before the High Court and I cannot
comment on it. The High Court is still to express its view. I understand the
NCA has lodged a legal suit in the High Court complaining about this time
period and no-one is allowed in terms of the laws of this country, to
comment on a matter which is pending before the courts.

GONDA: Professor Raftopoulos what can you say about that – the issue of
extending the date at least to give people time and also are you surprised
that the three rival parties have finally found each other to push for a YES
vote when they have been fighting all along?

RAFTOPOULOS: Well first of all I think the extension – there is a legitimate
case for an extension. I’m not sure why the President rushed it to declare
the referendum on the 16th because it’s clear to me that more time would not
have cost us much more and it would have been amenable to allowing people a
greater space to discuss and to operate. Regarding the convergence of
views – no I’m not surprised. I think that the parties have been, despite
the conflictual positions, have been finding common spaces over the last
four years and certainly have found a common space around the constitution
despite the disparities. It is also clear that at least two of the
principals in particular, or the three who are there if you regard Mutambara
as a principal, have found common space even though they have kind of shut
Ncube out of their deliberations. But it’s clear there has been some
convergence. And that was clear after the Second All Stakeholders Conference
where it seemed there would be an impasse because having gone through this
long process one assumed all the parties had agreed and then we were told
this matter would be taken to the principals, and very quickly after it had
been taken to the principals, there was complete agreement. So one is not
sure exactly what happened there but at this stage I think that you’re
likely to get a YES vote because the political parties have agreed but also
because as I have tried to argue, there are elements in this constitution
and in the whole political process which do allow us to move forward. It
would have been unrealistic to expect a constitution to resolve all the
political issues that we’ve faced. It’s a document, a living document, which
provides a framework but it’s not going to guarantee everything. That comes
with the politics of constitutionalism and the opening up of democratic
space which can only be fought for in the coming years.

GONDA: Mr Mangwana cynics say freedom of expression is enshrined in our
constitution but people don’t have it in Zimbabwe – those in Zanu PF will
always do whatever they want with or without this new constitution.

MANGWANA: I think we will always have people who will always see evil, think
evil, sleep evil and eat evil. We are moving into a higher mode of
democratization, there’s a constitutional court now. Anyone whose rights
have been breached can take the government to the constitutional court. It
is also not true that we don’t enjoy freedom of expression. What we are
doing right now is a clear testimony that there’s freedom of expression.

GONDA: You said that it’s not true there’s no freedom of expression in
Zimbabwe but one good example is with the WOZA women who were arrested for
demonstrating last week. What is that about?

MANGWANA: No, no, no – if you infringe the laws of the country, you cannot
hide under freedom of expression. You see you are allowed to demonstrate but
you must make an application, inform the police. If you don’t follow the
laid down procedures, you’ll be arrested. You can’t just demonstrate
willy-nilly everywhere. If you think that POSA is unconstitutional, you take
it to the concessional court and have it nullified. If you can’t, then it’s
constitutional and as a citizen you must comply with its provisions.

GONDA: Mr Majongwe as a civic leader, what’s your reaction to what Mr
Mangwana is saying?

MAJONGWE: I think that is the sickness that this country has. Let me start
by responding to the issue of the time that has been given. I think that is
part of the corruption that somebody wants to steal and steamroll this
document at supersonic speed. You can’t tell me that you give people such
short notice and then tell us that they’re only going to do 70 000 copies of
the draft constitution. 70 000 copies will mean one document for every 214
people and expecting the 214 people to be reading the document in 16 days –
it’s unbelievable.
I think it is an insult to our conscience that the people who are both
liberators in view of Zanu PF, and democrats in the name of the MDC, want to
do this to us. It is unbelievable but possibly because we are living in this
era of unbelievable things happening – possibly it would happen.
I think the most important thing that we want Mangwana and Douglas Mwonzora
to know is that the citizens of this country we must not be made to believe
that what the politicians say is right. We must have the express right to
demonstrate, to stand up and challenge these comrades as and when we want.
It must not be left to the political parties to dictate and determine how
this country is going to be run and I think that is where the real problem
is.

GONDA: Some people say the future is not now but later and that although the
document is not perfect it is a document that we can work with right now.
You keep saying you will vote NO but what is the alternative?

MAJONGWE: The most important thing here is this – when we want to build a
horse and we end up building a camel, and then we start saying to everybody
because we have built an animal that has four legs, let’s jump on it and
move forward. That’s not what we want. This decision should not be left to
the political parties to ultimately then package all of us, some of us who
might not necessarily be belonging to these political parties. It must be
done transparently. Give us enough time to read this document. Possibly when
you give us time we then can go out and say yes we can vote YES. Not now. We
have a membership of 14 000 people. We will not be able to give each one of
them this document. What of those that are bigger – the churches? We want
people to see this document, it’s not a document for making buns, and it’s
not a recipe for baking meat or braaing meat. It’s a document, which is
going to be used to govern this country. If it took these guys four years to
come up with this haphazard document why do they want 25 days to dispose of
it? Mangwana must come and tell me where collective bargaining is in this
document! Why civil servants are being taken away from the rest of the
workers of this country? Why are we being told that we must not join
political parties? We are not Brigadier Nyikayaramba all of us – we are not
soldiers. They must not write documents to deal with certain individuals and
you put the rest of us in straitjackets.

GONDA: And a final word Mr Mangwana?

MANGWANA: I think I am inviting VaMajongwe for a one-to-one, I need to
educate him on the contents of the constitution more and I’ll advise him
that there’s a lot of collective bargaining provision; civil servants are
allowed to collectively bargain but I see that he is leaving a window for us
to meet each other somewhere – so I’m inviting him for a one-to-one, let him
phone me. My number is 0773261510, let him contact me and I’ll have a
one-to-one with him and I’ll suppose Ill convince him to vote YES. I see he’s
moving towards me and I’m happy about that.

GONDA: Professor Raftopoulos?

RAFTOPOULOS: Look I think that Zimbabwe is coming out of a long history of
repression, both in the colonial period and in the post-colonialism period
where the law and constitutionalism have been used adversely to close down
rights. I think what we’re hoping for now is to open up that debate, to open
up that possibility, to move our post-colonial state and the party, the
parties that came out of the liberation movement into a broader discussion
around democratic rights. That’s all democratic rights – civic, human,
economic, redistributive rights. To open up this discussion in a much more
transparent way and to allow for more tolerance. It’s something that I think
Zanu PF in particular has a great deal to learn and I think that we all as
Zimbabweans must fight to push that process forward.

GONDA: And Mr Majongwe?

MAJONGWE: I think the most important thing that we basically want to say is
that – this document was hurriedly produced; it is a Zanu PF document. Sorry
for me to say this but I think that the MDC was hoodwinked into believing
that this document speaks and represents their interests. It doesn’t. To
some of us a NO vote is guaranteed whatever the outcome because we don’t
agree with how it was done and where we are being taken to as the citizens
of this country.

GONDA: Thank you very much Mr. Raymond Majongwe from the ZCTU, Professor
Brian Raftopoulos political commentator, and COPAC co-chairman Mr.
Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, thank you for a lively and informative debate.

The Copac Constitution fails before the law

http://www.swradioafrica.com

Posted by admin on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 in Featured, Wilbert on
Wednesday | 0 comments
OPINION:
By Wilbert Mukori
27 February 2013

The first tenet of the law, if it is to be relevant and to stand the test of
time, is to protect the weak and the law-abiding from the actions of the
wicked and lawless. The second tenet is that no one, absolutely no one, is
above the law. This Copac Constitution before us fails on both counts.

Zimbabweans will be denied their right to free and fair elections and many
will be beaten and, God forbid, hundreds killed. The killing has already
started; last weekend a 12 year old boy was burnt to death in Highlands. If
people vote yes and accept this Copac Constitution then they must know they
will have voted yes to the repeat of the wanton violence of 2008!

The Global Political Agreement signed by the three political parties in
Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unit and guaranteed by SADC, agreed on a
raft of democratic reforms. The GNU was tasked with implementing these
reforms and to write a new democratic constitution. The reforms were meant
to end Mugabe’s dictatorial powers; to restore the independence of state
institutions like the police and judiciary and to free them to perform their
statutory duties in a non-partisan way.

Five years since the signing of the GPA what do we have? Well not even one
of the democratic reforms has been implemented in any meaningful way. Mugabe
still has his dictatorial powers. This Copac constitution, because it was
written round this core reality of preserving Mugabe’s dictatorial power,
preserves the dictatorship – the very thing it was meant to dismantle.

Mugabe has enjoyed not just power but absolute power for 33 years; Prime
Minister Tsvangirai has been very naïve throughout to think Mugabe will
willingly implement the reforms and dismantle his own power base!

“Red Bull, it gives you wings!” So runs the high energy soft drink advert! I
do not know about Red Bull giving you wings but I do know that power makes
people big headed. Grant even the village idiot power, and suddenly he will
be bossing everyone around as if he is the greatest genius in the land.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai was sworn in, in February 2009, got his whiff of
power, and next thing he was telling the world Mugabe had changed and was
asking the West to bankroll Zimbabwe’s economic recovery. Of course Mugabe
had not changed at all; he continued with his violent seizure of white owned
farms, harassing his critics, etc. The Western leaders pointed out these
shortcomings to Prime Minister Tsvangirai but of course it went in one ear
and straight out the other. The Western Leaders quickly realized they were
wasting their time. They send Tsvangirai back home with his begging bowl
full of fresh air; not even a farthing!

Absolute power is a lot more potent than the watered down power Tsvangirai
has been high on, and it is absolute power that Mugabe has been taking neat
for 33 years. No wonder he is punch drunk and deluded.

“There is nothing wrong in people having ambitions and discussing political
issues with their wives” Mugabe said at his 89th birthday party. “They
should not, however, tamper with the presidency; it is sacrosanct. These
positions come from God, they do not just come!”

The blasphemous arrogance of the man is insufferable!

Mugabe’s legacy to Zimbabwe is one of destruction and death. Millions of our
people today live in abject poverty because of all his corruption and
looting and he has murdered over 30,000 Zimbabweans during his reign of
terror. How can the murder of innocent people be called a “divine task”!

Of course as long as Mugabe regards the “presidency as sacrosanct” and is
free to use his dictatorial powers to carry out all manner of dirty tricks;
deny free media, deliberately have a chaotic voters roll, etc., and, his
personal favorite, use violence then yes the presidency will continue to be
his exclusive fiefdom. And this Copac constitution allows Mugabe to do just
that!

So why did Mugabe stubbornly refuse to implement the democratic reforms if
this was agreed in the GPA? Because implementing the reform would have taken
away his dictatorial powers and force free and fair elections which Mugabe
knows he would not win. And losing an election meant regime change, he and
his cronies losing their loot and, for many of them, accounting for the
blood on their hands!
It should be noted that it is in the long term interest of those who
consider themselves Zanu PF supporters to vote no in the referendum because
the economic melt-down caused by all this corruption and looting has hit us
all. Mugabe’s 100% indigenization will only mean more looting so the rich
few get even richer whilst the rest sink deeper into abject poverty.

PM Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders blundered in signing the GPA and
thus let Mugabe off the hook after all that wanton violence. They blundered
in agreeing to a power sharing arrangement which gave Mugabe so much power
and none to MDC. They blundered in letting Mugabe renege on GPA and not
implement the agreed reforms and let him get away with it.

Most Zimbabweans have been nagged by the question: If this Copac
constitution is rubbish, which many of them are beginning to see for
themselves, then why did Prime Minister Tsvangirai, Professor Ncube and the
rest of the MDC leaders come out in support of it?

The short, quick and simple answer to that is: Prime Minister Tsvangirai and
his MDC friends are not the competent, principled and visionary leaders we
want them to be. They have proved to be the exact opposite; all that
blundering I referred to above are not the hallmarks of competent leaders
but incompetent ones.
Having failed to get Mugabe to implement the reform has made MDC leaders
desperate to have at least one thing they could say to the people “Look we
did this!” Prime Minister Tsvangirai invested all his political capital in
delivering the new constitution. Mugabe, not one to miss an opportunity to
abuse the man he has nothing but contempt, has done his best to drag out the
constitution writing process just to wind Tsvangirai up. When he finally
“dictated” the constitution to his liking; Tsvangirai and Ncube just signed
on the dotted line, no questions asked!
Having endorsed the Copac Constitution and held it to the nation as an MDC
achievement; Tsvangirai and company are locked in; they have no choice now
but to sell it as the best thing that has happened to the nation. They have
been at sixes and sevens to explain why the new constitution would not
deliver free and fair elections – free of violence never mind all the other
niceties like free media, clean voters roll, etc.

In January the MDC said the Copac Constitution alone was strong enough to
deliver free and fair elections. They finally admitted the reforms were
necessary and PM Tsvangirai said he would get them implemented before the
referendum. Mugabe and Zanu PF once again refused to give an inch on reforms
and the PM soon gave up on that one. MDC still maintains it position that
there will be no violence – they need to if the people are not to start
questioning the folly of another bloody election process and vote no in the
referendum – but now based on the hope that Mugabe will keep his word of
“peaceful elections”! Are we to hang the whole nation’s hopes and dreams on
this spider’s thread!

The nation should be ruled by law and not the whim of man, much less the
whim of a tyrant!

Yes of course a no vote in the referendum would be hugely damaging to PM
Tsvangirai and the MDC. This is the one thing they have claimed to have done
and the people throw it out as rubbish! That would certainly be a body blow
to the MDC and Tsvangirai in particular. But typical of Tsvangirai and the
MDC, whilst they are totally engrossed with the me-here-now they have
completely failed to consider what a no vote would do to Mugabe and Zanu PF!

A no vote in the referendum will mean a new body must be instituted and
tasked to implement the necessary democratic reforms, write a democratic
constitution which all freedom loving people will accept and the held free
and fair elections – free of violence. Implement the reforms and overnight
Mugabe will be nothing but a paper tiger!

The only reason Mugabe agreed to hold the referendum on this Copac
Constitution is because he was convinced PM Tsvangirai and his MDC friends
were naïve enough to believe they could still win the election even if
Mugabe was allowed to use violence. And as long as PM Tsvangirai held on to
that belief Mugabe knew they would campaign for a yes vote in the
referendum.

Mugabe needs the yes vote more than MDC or most people can even begin to
imagine!

Mugabe would have wanted the referendum held yesterday! The last thing he
wants to see are people scrutinizing the Copac Constitution and discovering
it is rubbish. 16 March was the earliest he could realistically call the
referendum and, hopefully, get away with. PM Tsvangirai was, as usual,
naively obliging.

It took many Zimbabweans 15 years before they finally realized Mugabe was
not the great liberation war hero endowed with the infinite wisdom they had
imagined him to have, but was instead a corrupt and murderous tyrant given
to making long winded speeches full of empty rhetoric. What a letdown! Well
time waits for no one. How long will it take Zimbabweans to recognize that
PM Tsvangirai is not the competent leader they imagine him to but a “flawed
and indecisive character”, as US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Chris Dell, so
aptly put it back in 2002?

This referendum is turning out to be a lot more than Zimbabweans deciding on
whether or not they like this Copac rubbish; it is testing whether or not
we, as a nation, are capable of making the important decisions after careful
consideration and not always follow our leaders blindly.

I once visited Ingutsheni Mental Hospital in Bulawayo and saw this patient
slaving away “watering” a flower bed with a leaky bucket. The distance from
the water tap to the flower bed was such that by the time she got there, the
bucket was nearly empty. She was soaked through and through!

The upcoming referendum will be our own leaky bucket test. If we blindly
believe the “flawed and indecisive” Tsvangirai that there will be no repeat
of the violence of 2008; when we can all see with our own eyes that there
will be violence and, God forbid, the nation is plunged into months of
mindless violence! Then we are, in electoral terms at least, not much
different from the Ingutsheni Mental Hospital patient!

Good night.

We did no wrong: Brainworks

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

Wednesday, 27 February 2013 11:40
HARARE - We are instructed by Brainworks Capital Management (Private)
Limited to demand an immediate unconditional apology and retraction from the
Daily News, and persons associated with the paper, in particular Messrs.

Mutsaka, Phiri and Chiriga, in respect of certain articles recently
appearing in two of your publications.

These articles, appearing on February 14, 15 instant headed “Indigenisation
under threat” and “Govt cheated in $1bn deal”, respectively, the latter
being the papers headline on that date, form the basis for our client’s
indignation.

The articles are defamatory of our client in the extreme and are
intentionally designed to inflict, as is clearly evident from the assertions
contained therein, the greatest possible reputational damage on Brainworks
Capital, and it must be said, by extension, its directors.

Further, similar articles, such as that of the 21st instant headed
“Nieebgate scam rages on” have subsequently appeared in the Daily News
regurgitating and aggravating the defamatory nature of these original
articles.

In particular, we are instructed to point out to the Daily News the
following material distortions, omissions, mistruths and the like, appearing
in the main, from the original article of the 14th instant, above:-

It is alleged that our client has embarked on a scheme of “massive
misrepresentation and grand looting...” Imputed in this statement is
criminal conduct on the part of our client. Nowhere in your articles is this
statement, not even presented as an allegation, supported by facts.

The statement appears next to what is intended to be a rogues’ gallery
containing the individual “mug shots” of our client’s directors. The
insinuation by the Daily News is that these persons are at the helm of the
said “massive misrepresentation” and “grand looting”

Further alleged and imputed by the Daily News is that our client netted
“massive cash contracts without going to tender”, omitting, deliberately in
our respectful view, to explain why our client, and others appointed as
financial advisors to National Indigenisation Economic & Empowerment Fund
(NIEEF), should be subjected to the provisions of the State Procurement Act
when, as in our client’s particular instance, the value of the service to be
provided had not been quantified as being in excess of the alleged US$300
000 threshold that NIEEF could be obligated to pay.

In other words, no liability accrues to NIEEF to pay anything for services
rendered by our client in the first instance: that responsibility rests
primarily on the indigenized company. If for any reason there is a cost that
must accrue to NIEEF it must be accepted, as a matter of law and logic, that
the maximum amount enforceable cannot exceed the threshold of US$300 000.

4. Allied to this, and deliberately distorted in your article is the
statement that our client stood to “pocket up to $45 million from the
Zimplats deal alone”.

There is a disingenuous attempt to break down this figure elsewhere in the
articles.

With respect, a sincere three month investigation would have revealed that
our client's invoiced fee from the Zimplats transaction, billed as full and
final, is in fact only 1.5% of the transaction value and below the average
2% sought by other financial advisors considered for these mandates, before
our client's services were engaged in consummating the ground breaking
transaction.

Daily News failed, deliberately in our client's view, to explain, further,
that the additional 2.5% for raising any loan to refinance the transaction
is in fact success based, and that the percentage is well within the
accepted norms in the financial services industry locally and worldwide.

In fact, no attempt was made to balance these figures and percentages with a
comparative analysis of local and international industry norms, more so when
making very serious allegations of “grand looting”, and other criminal
conduct.

5. The articles state that “only British courts will handle any disputes
which might emanate from the empowerment deals reached...” and “that London
Courts will have jurisdiction...” and that “if there is a dispute, Mugabe
will have to deal with British courts”.

Whilst it is unclear, from the article itself, as to whether this relates to
our client's mandate letter or the Zimplats Term Sheet, the fact is that,
either way, this is absolute falsehood contrived to cause the greatest
possible market confusion, despondency, and incite a political reaction to
the detriment of our client's interests.

No such clause, giving jurisdiction to the British courts, appears in the
term sheet signed between the Zimplats, Government and NIEEF or indeed in
our client’s mandate letter. The imputation, with respect, and its
intentions are mischievous and malicious in the extreme.

6. It is further stated that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Ministry
of Mines 'who play an advisory role in such deals, were not consulted.

This is a distortion of the Term Sheet’s provisions, which clearly refer to
the requirement for all necessary regulatory approvals in the implementation
of the transaction pursuant to definitive legal documentation to b concluded
between the parties in respect of the transactions forming part of the
Zimplats indigenization implementation plan.

It is imputed that our client was party to a “stinking deal”.

The manner in which the deal “stinks” is not stated or elaborated on by the
unnamed sources quoted by the Daily News. Nor, it is clear, was any attempt
made to find the source and cause of this smell in the so-called “three
month investigation”.

The Daily News “discovered that Brainworks was verbally appointed without
going to tender as is the norm with government deals worth more than
$300,000”.

It is not explained how Zimplats, a public listed company, responsible for
payment of the advisory service fees, is suddenly subject to the tender laws
of Zimbabwe.

Critically, and obviously omitted, is the fact that our client signed a
mandate letter with the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Board on 8th June, 2012, dealing with, inter alia, the Zimplats transaction.

There is nothing “verbal” about a signed mandate, and as stated above, there
was, and is, absolutely no obligation that such a mandate be subject to the
tender process.

In short, the reports are malicious and defamatory of our client. They
impute criminal and corrupt conduct on its part and that of its directors in
collusion with officials from Government and NIEEB.

These articles have already formed the basis for other reports in the local
and international media, particularly on the internet at a time when our
client is engaged in an ongoing fundraising exercise to further its business
objectives.

Your articles have significantly prejudiced the successful outcome of this
fund raising process.

The impeccable business and professional reputations of its directors have
been soiled by articles appearing in the Daily News.

It will be emphasized for the record that these articles, and further
related articles (our client reserves the right to incorporate these related
articles, appearing in the Daily News, in any legal action) are designed to
inflict the greatest possible reputational damage on our client and its
directors and pour scorn on what is effectively the beginning of the single
largest empowerment transaction in the history of Zimbabwe.

So recklessly published are these articles, containing express and implied
instances of alleged illegal and unlawful conduct, that one is constrained
to assign intentional criminal defamation on those responsible.

Our client reserves its right to file a criminal complaint in the future
should it so deem appropriate.

It suffices that for now our client demands a full and formal unconditional
apology and retraction, through a written statement approved by Brainworks,
and ourselves, published in a manner similar to the prominence given to the
offending articles, in the Daily News as well as all national papers and the
internet over a period of seven days.

We have instructions to issue out summons out of the High Court claiming
damages for defamation in the amount of US$50 million, as well as proceeding
with all other legal remedies available to our clients in the event that
such a retraction is not agreed to, finalized and published within THREE
DAYS after receipt of this correspondence.

Please be advised accordingly.

Yours faithfully,

TITAN LAW CHAMBERS

*This is an unedited letter from Brainworks Capital lawyers.

Zimbabwe: New Narrative on Land Reform

Two long articles here http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/zim1302a.php and
here http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/zim1302b.php

Constitution Watch 7/2013 of 27th February [Draft Constitution: Minister Matinenga's Advocacy Meetings Programme]

CONSTITUTION WATCH 7/2013

[27th February 2013]

The Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Eric Matinenga, is addressing meetings round the country about the COPAC draft constitution which will be put to voters in the Referendum on Saturday 16th March. His programme started last week with meetings in Harare, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East, and will continue until Tuesday 12th March.

All meetings are scheduled to start at 10 am.

The meetings are open to all.

This is the Minister’s programme until Tuesday 12th March:

Date Province Venue

Monday 25 February Manicaland Mutare Polytechnic

Tuesday 26 February Manicaland Chipinge Primary

Wednesday 27 February Mashonaland West Chinhoyi University (CUT)

Thursday 28 February Mashonaland West Chegutu T.P. Rukawo Hotel

Friday 1 March Midlands Senga Training Centre

Monday 4 March Masvingo Civic Centre Hall

Tuesday 5 March Masvingo Zaka Primary School

Wednesday 6 March Matabeleland South Gwanda District Club

Thursday 7 March Matabeleland South Plumtree [to be advised]

Friday 8 March Bulawayo Nkulumane Hall

Saturday 9 March Bulawayo Large City Hall

Monday 11 March Matabeleland North Lupane Hall

Tuesday 12 March Matabeleland North To be advised

Please note that these meetings are in addition to COPAC’s ongoing Awareness Campaigns on the Draft Constitution.

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied