Chiyangwa divides Zanu PF

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 18:28

BY PATRICE MAKOVA

ZANU PF’s heavyweights are in a bitter fight over Phillip Chiyangwa with
information emerging that the businessman has once again been cleared to
stand in elections for the vacant post of provincial chairperson slated for
later this month.

Sources told The Standard that fresh squabbles have hit Zanu PF with senior
politburo members divided on whether to allow Chiyangwa to contest the post
after the party’s secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa wrote to the
businessman confirming his re-admittance to the party after a five-year
suspension period.

Zanu PF central committee member Tony Mwanza confirmed that some senior
party officials were trying to bar Chiyangwa from contesting as they felt
threatened by his “popularity” in the province.

“Certain senior party officials who I cannot name are trying to impose
people they can easily control,” he said.

“They will face resistance from the people because Chiyangwa is popular
throughout the province. He managed to unite party members when he was
chairman. The man has paid for whatever mistakes he has made in the past and
must now be allowed back.”

Zanu PF national chairman Simon Khaya- Moyo last month presented a report to
the party’s recent annual national people’s conference in Bulawayo which
stated that Chiyangwa’s re-admission was not an issue because he had not
re-applied.

But on November 9 2011, Mutasa had written to Chiyangwa advising him about
his re-admission.

“This letter serves to advise you that the Zanu PF politburo sitting at its
Ordinary Session on 2nd of November 2011 at Zanu PF Headquarters resolved to
re-admit you back into Zanu PF party at the expiry of your period of
expulsion on 20 March 2011,” says the letter.

A Mashonaland West provincial executive member said the decision would be
challenged.

“We are working to block Chiyangwa from becoming chairman because he uses
money to buy power and influence,” said the member who requested anonymity.

Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said Chiyangwa was indeed now a full
member of the party but added that the businessman would, for the time
being, remain an ordinary card carrying “cadre”.

“The central committee report presented to the national people’s conference
incorrectly said Chiyangwa has not been re-admitted,” said Gumbo. “What
Mutasa wrote is the correct position, but he left out that Chiyangwa will be
an ordinary member until further notice to allow us to monitor his
performance.”

Sources said when the Chiyangwa issue came for discussion in the politburo,
the party’s political commissar Webster Shamu and Local Government, Rural
and Urban Development minister Ignatius Chombo opposed his re-admission.

But Defence Industries boss Colonel Tshinga Dube, Senator for Mwenezi
Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Senate President Edna Madzongwe and President Robert
Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao are said to have fought on behalf of
Chiyangwa.

“At the end of the day, it was Mugabe himself who saved Chiyangwa declaring
that he can rejoin the party,” said a politburo member.
Sources said at least three Zanu PF factions have emerged in Mashonaland
West as party chiefs in the province fight to have their preferred
candidates elected to the powerful post which fell vacant following the
death of the then-acting-chairman Robert Sikanyika in a car accident in
April last year.
A faction which has the “ears” of the most senior party official in the
province and politburo member Nathan Shamuyarira is said to be pushing for
Chiyangwa’s candidature.

On the other hand Chombo is said to be sponsoring Zvimba South MP and Deputy
Minister of State Enterprises and Parastatals Walter Chidhakwa.
Shamu, who is also Media, Information and Publicity minister is lobbying for
the current acting chairman Reuben Marumahoko, sources said. Expelled former
chairman John Mafa is also in the running.

Chombo and Shamu could not be reached for comment.

With elections expected to take place later this year, the post of chairman
is critical in the selection of candidates to represent the party and
eventually a possible successor for Mugabe.

Chiyangwa was suspended by Zanu PF in 2005 after he was arrested but later
acquitted on charges of espionage.

Festive road deaths surpass last year’s figure

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 18:27

BY OUR STAFF
NINETY-THREE people have perished in road accidents since police started
recording festive season accidents two weeks ago.
Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri yesterday said 1 061 accidents have been
recorded across the country since December 15. Although the total number of
accidents recorded remains lower than last year’s 1 119, the fatalities are
already higher than last year’s 92 deaths.

Phiri said police have since impounded 2 151 defective vehicles compared to
last year’s 2 909. No drivers have been arrested for drunken driving this
year although police have issued 86 858 tickets for different offences.

Last year, police last year arrested 182 drivers for drunken driving.

Currently, Harare has the highest accidents with a total of 360 as at
yesterday morning while Matabeleland North has the least with a total of 28.
Among other provinces, Bulawayo recorded 149 accidents, Midlands 135,
Masvingo 77, Manicaland 71 and Mashonaland Central 39.

Phiri said the bulk of the accidents were caused by speeding and
misjudgement on the part of the drivers.
Lack of attention, drunken driving and the poor state of roads have also
been previously blamed for the country’s road carnage.

Madzorera denies bird flu death

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 18:26

BY NQABA MATSHAZI
MYSTERY surrounds the cause of death of MDC-T legislator, Gladys Gombami.
News reports said she had died of avian influenza or bird flu but health
expects deny there any cases of the disease in the country. Health and Child
Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera said the government had not raised any
alerts of an outbreak of the disease as they had not received reports of a
possible epidemic.

“The Epidemics and Disease Control centre has not informed me about any
outbreak, but they are closed and we can only know that after the holidays,”
he said.

Madzorera said he could not comment further as he had not received any news
of an outbreak.

Officials from the health ministry also revealed that there were no known
cases of the virus in Zimbabwe or in the region. They said it was highly
unlikely that there could have been an outbreak in the country.

The only recently recorded cases, the officials said, were reported in Hong
Kong and a spread to Zimbabwe at this stage was highly improbable.
But the family of the late senator insist that post-mortem results had
indicated that Gombami had been afflicted with the deadly avian virus.
The Standard could not have access to the post-mortem report.

To add to the mystery, a Kadoma doctor reportedly declined to carry out a
postmortem and instead referred the family to a hospital in Harare.

“We were told that she had a swelling in her stomach because there was water
in her lungs, but this did not make sense to us,” an informed source said.

The source said before her death, the senator was down with influenza, she
however developed an unnamed infection in her chest.

In the past Zimbabwe’s health systems have been reported to be incapable of
handling epidemics such as bird and swine flu. In 2010 it was reported that
some children in Tsholotsho were affected by swine flu. However, results on
whether it was actually swine flu were inconclusive.

Meanwhile, a storm is brewing within the MDC-T after the party’s deputy
president, Thokozani Khupe and women’s assembly boss, Theresa Makone failed
to attend Gombami’s funeral.

At the funeral, people spoke in hushed tones on the absence of the duo, with
Khupe reportedly having gone on holiday to Dubai.

Some mourners claimed Khupe could have postponed her trip by a day
considering that she travelled either on the day of the funeral or a day
before. They were particularly scathing on Makone, whom they said was
working together with Gombami in the women’s assembly and should have been
present.

But the party’s deputy spokesperson Tabitha Khumalo said: “They excused
themselves because they had prior arrangements.”

Minister Mpofu acquires PhD at 60

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 18:25

BY JENNIFER DUBE
RECENTLY capped doctor, Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert
Mpofu, has urged his colleagues in government to dedicate time to improving
their education as this not only benefits them in their work but also in
their personal lives. Mpofu last month graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy
(PhD) in Policy Studies from the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU).

He was capped by President Robert Mugabe together with Zanu-PF chief whip
Joram Gumbo (PhD in Policy Studies) and Police Senior Assistant Commissioner
Charles Makono (PhD in Philosophy in Management). Many questioned how Mpofu
had managed to pursue his studies considering the tight schedule ministers
have.

“Yes, a minister’s schedule is busy but with dedication, it is possible to
study and improve oneself,” Mpofu said.

“Technological advancements make it easy to study nowadays as one can read
from their computer instead of moving from one library to another.”
He added: “Being a minister is a 24 hours’ work but I still manage to do a
lot of reading and everything I read becomes part of my research.”
There have been sentiments that some legislators, even those at high
offices, lack requisite skills for their jobs.

A PhD is a doctorate usually based on at least three years graduate study
and a thesis. It is the highest degree awarded graduate study and is awarded
for original contributions to knowledge.

Most work for a PhD centres around research for the thesis which can be over
200 pages compared to typical undergraduate dissertations which might be
forty pages and Master’s theses which can be 100 pages.

Mpofu said he started gathering data for his PhD thesis in 2008 when he was
Minister of Industry and International Trade.
He said publishing companies had approached him with requests to publish a
book based on his thesis titled “An Analysis of The Tripartite Negotiating
Forum (TNF) in Zimbabwe”.

TNF is a forum where government, industry and labour meet to discuss issues
to do with the economy, business environment and workers’ welfare among
others.

“My stint in the ministry, which exposed me to a lot of negotiations
locally, in the region and internationally influenced my research topic,”
Mpofu said.
“My thesis explores why we had a lot of inconclusive negotiations in the TNF
and is about the enhancement of negotiating skills which Africa is not fully
equipped in as is shown in negotiations under such organizations as World
Trade Organisation, Sadc, Comesa, ACP-EU and Kimberly Process.”

Mpofu encouraged his colleagues to study despite hinderances.  He said he
studied for his Masters in Policy Studies with the University of Zimbabwe
and Fort Hare under difficult conditions as his lecturers who included Dr
John Makumbe, Eldred Masunungure and the late Masiphula Sithole were always
critical of his party Zanu-PF.

Mpofu said despite some negative views about ZOU, the institution is better
than many in the region, especially regarding research as supervisors are
drawn from various universities in the region.

“Of course, there is need for them to improve in some areas like those with
programmes which have been suspended but that does not mean they are a bad
institution,” he said.

Mpofu said he believed government was committed to improving the quality
education in the country despite the lack of resources.
“My colleagues in the Information and Technology Development Ministry are
doing their best to equip schools with computers,” he said. “Others in other
ministries linked to education are also doing all they can so I believe
government is doing its best to ensure that education is available to all in
Zimbabwe.

He added: “Conditions at schools are better these days compared to our days
when books were limited and the sole source of information, especially in
rural schools, was the teacher.”

Restructuring Zanu PF worsens internal feuding

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 18:08

BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
senior Zanu PF officials are worried that the impending restructuring
exercise of the party will trigger fresh infighting as different factions
manoeuvre to place their loyalties in strategic positions as the battle to
succeed ageing President Robert Mugabe intensifies, party insiders said last
week. They fear that the current intense lobbying for posts and political
mudslinging could leave the party more divided and unable to face its main
political rival, MDC-T, should polls be held any time soon.

Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo however, said the exercise would instead
strengthen the party and weed out bad apples in time for elections later
this year.

The restructuring exercise begins this month as the party prepares for
elections, which Mugabe insists should be held later this year without fail.
Sources said Zanu PF political commissar Webster Shamu has been instructed
to superintend over the exercise with due care as it has the potential to
further divide the former ruling party, already plugged by internal fights.

It is against this background that Shamu recently warned party members
involved in the succession debate that there was no vacancy for the post of
president as Mugabe was still in charge.

He accused party cadres who wanted to be elected in top posts of causing
chaos in the party and its organs.

There are at least four distinct factions in Zanu PF. These are said to be
led by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice President Joice Mujuru,
Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) chief, Constantine Chiwenga and one devoted to
keeping Mugabe in power.

“The fears are legitimate because every faction is determined to control the
party’s structures from districts to provinces,” said one insider.
“Shamu’s warning stems from the same fears. One’s control of provinces plays
a crucial role in the dynamics on who takes over from the old man (Mugabe).”

Another source said factional fighting has seen Zanu PF failing to elect a
provincial chairman for Mashonaland West, where the party’s gurus are said
to have clashed on several occasions as they try to impose their favourite
cadres.

In Masvingo, a rival faction has set a parallel district coordinating
committee office at Nyika Growth Point as the fight for control of Bikita
district intensifies. The factions are said to belong to Mujuru and
Mnangagwa camps.

A few days before the Zanu PF annual conference in Bulawayo, turmoil erupted
in Matabeleland provinces as the party’s factions openly clashed. This
resulted in the party’s Matabeleland North chairman Zwelitsha Masuku being
sacked for alleged incompetence. He was replaced by former chairman Headman
Moyo.

Senior central committee and politburo members in the province also clashed
over the prolonged suspension of the provincial women’s league secretary Eve
Bitu.

Sources said the clashes were a direct result of factional fault lines in
the party, as senior party members make strategic political manoeuvres ahead
of elections later this year. They said the clashes in Bulawayo, Masvingo
and Mashonaland West were reflective of bigger fights in Zanu PF as
presidential hopefuls position loyalists in strategic and influential posts
hoping for their favours later.

Efforts to get a comment from Shamu were fruitless.

However, Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said the restructuring exercise
would solve the problem of factionalism.

He denied the exercise would further divide and weaken the party but
strengthen it ahead of the elections.

“We can’t fail to restructure because there are factions,” said Gumbo. “In
fact, we have to restructure so that we remove forces that are destructive
to the party.”

Gumbo said Shamu, as the party’s political commissar, would address every
member’s grievances, if there are any, to make sure that the party remains
stable.

Mugabe’s beloved serial failures

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 17:02

BY PATRICE MAKOVA
A lot has been said about President Robert Mugabe hanging on to power for
too long. Mugabe has been under attack for the current economic and
political problems in the country with analysts and his local and foreign
opponents urging him to go in order to save the country from further
decline. Even some of his top lieutenants were last year exposed in
controversial whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks that they were secretly
meeting United States diplomats to discuss Mugabe’s exit.

But not much is being said about the contribution to the current situation
of some of these lieutenants who have been in government with Mugabe for the
past 32 years.

The Standard takes a look at the performance of some of the cabinet
ministers who have been in government since the 1980’s.

EmMerson Mnangagwa

Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa is one of the longest serving government
ministers and was once touted as Mugabe’s heir apparent.
At Independence in 1980 Mnangagwa became the first black Minister of State
for Security responsible for the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
The CIO, just like its colonial predecessor, became dreaded for suppressing
real and imagery opponents.
Together with the fifth Brigade of the army, the CIO was accused of
committing atrocities in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces which saw the
death of thousands of people during the now infamous Gukurahundi era whose
scars remain visible up to today with victims and survivors calling for
justice.

Mnangagwa later became Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
He promised sweeping media reforms, including the scrapping of the notorious
criminal defamation act, but this never happened.
In 2005, after spending five years as Speaker of Parliament, where he was
said to have earned the respect of both Zanu PF and then opposition MDC,
Mnangagwa was “demoted” to Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities
after the “uncovering” of the so-called Tsholotsho “coup” attempt in 2004.

As Defence minister, Mnangagwa is linked to the notorious Joint Operations
Command (JOC) comprising military and other security officials who
masterminded Mugabe’s re-election in the bloody 2008 elections.

Joice Mujuru
Mujuru became Zimbabwe’s first woman Vice-President in 2004. She was also
the first woman to become a provincial governor. Although she is energetic
and at one time seen as an uncontestable successor to Mugabe, Mujuru has not
distinguished herself in the various portfolios she held.
Mujuru is not without controversy. When she was Minister of Information,
Post and Telecommunication, she overturned a directive by acting-President
Joshua Nkomo to license Econet Wireless as the third cellular operator in
the country. Mujuru was rebuked by many after allegedly insulting Nkomo
calling him “senile.”
She has also been Minister of Youth, Sport and Recreation and that of
Community Development and Women’s Affairs and Water Resources and
Infrastructural Development.

Sydney Sekeramayi

Sekeramayi is the Minister of State for Security. He has kept a low profile
since joining government in 1980. He has also been Minister of Defence,
Health and Mines and Energy. Although he is considered bright and
articulate, he has not performed well in government.
The CIO which he heads stands accused of violating human rights, but he has
done nothing to improve the record of the secret services, preferring to be
on the sidelines leaving intelligence bosses to run the show.
Mugabe is thought to be now favouring him as successor, but he is likely to
face stiff resistance from the Mujuru and Mnangagwa factions.

Didymus Mutasa

Mutasa is the Minister of State in the President’s office. Mutasa’s only
notable record appears to be that of stirring controversy. Mutasa was the
country’s first Speaker of Parliament from 1980 to 1990. He once called
parliamentarians “dead woods,” accusing them of being “unwitty” and
uninspiring.

When he was appointed Minister of Special Affairs in the President’s Office
in charge of the Anti-corruption and Anti-monopolies programme, graft
actually blossomed with several top government and Zanu PF officials
implicated in corruption scandals.
The grabbing of white-owned farms accelerated when he was Minister of State
for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement. Mutasa himself
was accused of helping himself to several farms.

Mutasa was involved in a bizarre hoax of the infamous diesel n’anga, Rotina
Mavhunga who fooled Mugabe’s cabinet and Zanu PF that refined diesel was
gushing from a hill in Chinhoyi.

Simbarashe Mumbengegwi

Mumbengegwi is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but is largely considered a
joker. He was deputy speaker of Parliament in 1980 before being appointed
deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He later served as Minister of Water Resources and Development, National
Housing and Transport but had to be demoted to the diplomatic service role
due to poor performance.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, relations with Western countries which
imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe have not improved.

Health woes seem to undermine Nkomo’s performance

John Landa Nkomo

Nkomo (pictured) has been Vice-President since 2009 after succeeding Joseph
Msika who succumbed to cancer.
He was previously Minister of National Healing, Reconciliation Integration,
Speaker of Parliament, Minister of Home Affairs, and that of Local
Government and Rural Development.

Nkomo’s performance leaves a lot to be desired.
His political star seems to be waning due to mounting health problems.
In 2011, he was in and out of the country seeking medical attention for
life-threatening cancer.

New year: Political uncertainty still shrouds the nation

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 16:59

BY NQABA MATSHAZI
ZIMBABWE today enters 2012 the same way it entered the previous year,
uncertain what political route the country will take for the next 12 months.
Just as towards the end of 2010, the Zanu PF conference last year made
resounding resolutions that elections would be held in the following year,
but so far this call has come to nought.

To add to the uncertainty is the confusion over the constitutional reforms,
with the three parties trading accusations and counter-accusations on who
was to blame for the delay in completing the drafting of the new supreme law
for the country.

The new constitution, ideally, should be a precursor to holding fresh polls,
but Zanu PF and more recently MDC-T seem willing to head to elections before
the completion of the drafting of the constitution.

What complicates matters further is Zanu PF’s strong resolve to have the
return of the local currency, reigniting memories of hyper-inflation and
money shortages, which dogged the country for most of the last decade.

Political analyst Dumisani Nkomo reckons that 2012 will be very eventful, as
he expected the conclusion of the drafting of the constitution. He however,
has doubts on whether elections will be held this year.

“There is likely to be the conclusion of the constitution, although I don’t
think there will be elections,” he said.

Nkomo said there was likely to be a lot of “shadow expecting” as the parties
tried, as in the past year, to outdo each other politically and
economically.
“I know it is one of their (Zanu PF conference) resolutions, but bringing
back the Zimbabwe dollar will be the height of madness,” he said.
Nkomo has fears that the economy would suffer this year as the political
strain would take its toll.

Another political analyst, Effie Ncube, said despite Zanu PF’s push for an
election, the party was unlikely to get its way if it continues to refuse
implementation of democratic reforms. “Sadc and the international community
are likely to resist any elections and since Zanu PF is dragging its feet in
democratising the country, it will not be possible to hold elections,” he
said.

Ncube doubted whether there would be any significant changes on the
political front, with all parties trying to stamp their authority on the
electorate.

He predicted a surge in violence with rural areas likely to be the worst
affected.

Ncube agrees with Nkomo that the most exciting development of 2012 was
likely to be the conclusion of the drafting of the constitution. The draft
constitution will be taken for a referendum.

Zanu pf, mdc factions at loggerheads over elections

Zanu PF has been angling for elections for the past two years, but so far
these calls have been rebuffed by its coalition partners, MDC and MDC-T,
whose leaders want reforms before any polls are held.

MDC and MDC-T have a likely ally in the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc), which has been insisting that the country should first
implement an electoral roadmap before polls. But Zanu PF is increasingly
getting agitated and impatient, claiming the regional body is overstepping
its terms of reference.

Deportations bring misery to Matabeleland

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 15:58

BY FORTUNE MOYO
BULAWAYO — THE deportations of more than 6 000 Zimbabweans from South Africa
has seriously affected families that solely survived on remittances from the
neighbouring country. Hardest hit are families from dry provinces of
Matabeleland North and South that have the highest number of people who
flocked to South Africa to look for greener pastures in the past decade.

Most people who spoke to The Standard recently, said the deportations have
condemned many families to lives of destitution.
This is compounded by the fact that the provinces receive very low rainfall,
rendering any meaningful agricultural activities difficult to sustain
without irrigation.

Ronald Mamabolo (75) from Ntepe in Gwanda, who had three sons deported last
year, said the support he used to get from his sons has drastically been
reduced since the time they were forced to return home.

“I had five children who were working in South Africa.

“However, since the deportations began, three of my sons were returned
 home,” said Mamabolo.

“As such, it means that the money and food I was receiving from my children
has been reduced and that reduction is too much, considering that Gwanda is
a dry area.”

Vice-president of the Zimbabwe Unemployed People’s Association (Zupa)
Mqondisi Moyo said deportations have worsened poverty in most areas in
Matabeleland.

“Most of these people relied mostly on food and money sent by the relatives
and the recent deportations will defiantly increase the levels of poverty in
most areas,” said Moyo, whose organisation has about 8 000 members
countrywide.

The deportations have also affected people in urban areas who have also been
reliant on relatives working in South Africa.

Tawanda Moyo (55) from Bulawayo said he also had been surviving on food sent
by his sons working in South Africa since he was retrenched in 2009.
But life for him has changed for the worst since the deportation of his
sons.

A Southern African Migration Programme (Samp) sample survey conducted in
2005, revealed that for most of the 1980s, about 200 000 people crossed from
Zimbabwe into South Africa each year.

In the early 1990s, with the growing economic hardship in Zimbabwe, the
numbers increased dramatically, peaking at 750 000 in 1994.
Increasing political repression and economic hardship in the country, saw
the number of people crossing into South Africa topping 500 000 in 2000 and
by 2008, the figure had more than doubled to about 1,25 million.

The Samp survey also reveals that within the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) in 2001, 55% of Zimbabwean migrants were in South Africa,
followed by Mozambique (17%), Zambia (16%) and Malawi 16%.

Between May 2009 and July 2011, the South African government gave
Zimbabweans living in that country temporary deportation reprieve while it
engaged in a process to regularise their stay.

During that period, Zimbabweans with passports were encouraged to come
forward and apply for four-year work, study and living permits in that
country.

But the South African Home Affairs department said it managed to process 275
000 permits out of an estimated two million Zimbabweans living in that
country.

Villagers say relocation is safety from abuse

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 15:57

BY JENNIFER DUBE
VILLAGERS who were forced out of their homes to pave way for the mining of
diamonds in the Marange area in Manicaland province said the relocations
were a relief from abuses by security agents guarding the gem fields. They
were moved to Arda Transua Estate, about 100 kilometres from Chiadzwa in
Marange district. The estate is a few kilometres from the city of Mutare.

The villagers said life in Chiadzwa and surrounding areas had become a
nightmare as they faced constant abuse from security agents.
However, security agents and representatives of companies mining in Marange
dismissed allegations of human rights abuses.

“That place was no longer safe, especially for our children who were
frequently harassed and beaten up by soldiers,” 46-year-old Chipo Nyangani
said.
“Some of our children now have permanent scars to tell the story of our
lives at that place.”

She added: “Everyday, I would ponder on what to do for my children to be
safe but had no choice except to watch and endure like everyone else.”
The Nyangani family is among those who have been relocated to Arda Transau
Estate to pave way for mining operations in Marange.

Four companies operating in Marange have built about 700 standard homes at
the estate to accommodate villagers affected by their operations.

Anjin Investments said it had constructed 474 houses and allocated them to
90% of families affected by its operations while Marange Resources has built
104 houses and successfully moved 42 families.

Another mining firm, Mbada Diamond Mining (Pvt) Limited, said it had
allocated over 100 houses while Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC) is reported
to have constructed 21 houses.

The villagers were resettled on one hectare plots, each consisting of a
four-roomed house, one round and thatched kitchen, and a toilet. Chiefs and
village heads have five-roomed houses.

Anjin has also allocated half hectare plots to 484 villagers for use as
farmland while other companies said they will soon embark on a similar
programme.
In the meantime, the companies supply the families with foodstuffs and will
continue to do so until they harvest. Each family was also given US$1 000
disturbance allowance while negotiations for compensation allowances are
said to be underway.

Homesteads built by Anjin are supplied with tape water drawn from the nearby
Odzi River while other companies sunk boreholes.
The Anjin section is however, the dark-city of the estate while houses built
by other companies are solar powered.

The latter claim each homestead cost more than US$50 000 because of the
solar installations.

“Personally, I am happy with the structures as they are an improvement from
the homestead I had in Chiadzwa,” Nyangani said.

“But I am still trying to see how best I can fend for my four children
because in Chiadzwa, I grew vegetables to sale at Nyanyadzi.

“I hope to revive that business once they allocate us the fields. Although
the weather conditions do not seem to be different from Chiadzwa, I hope for
more business here since we are closer to town (Mutare).”

Relocation affecting schoolchildren

Sixteen-year-old Jaison Tsvarai, who is in Form Two at Odzi Secondary
School, complained that the school was too far from home.
His former school, Chiadzwa Secondary, was closer to home.

Other parents also expressed concern that Wellington Primary School, which
caters for children living at homesteads constructed by Mbada Diamond and
Marange Resources, had no Grade Seven classes, forcing affected pupils to
travel a long distance and cross a railway line to the nearest school in
Odzi.

“All those issues are being looked into,” Mbada Diamond Media Consultant
Ignatius Mazura said.

“Marange Resources are constructing a clinic to improve access to health
facilities while Mbada refurbished the school and will soon construct 20
more classrooms.”

Villagers opposed to construction of dam

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 15:51

BY TATENDA CHITAGU
TAKUNDA Moyo (46) gazes in the sky, continuously puffing out clouds of smoke
from a homemade cigarette, while giving his back to the mud huts perched
precariously at the confluence of Tugwi and Mukosi rivers. This is where the
massive water reservoir, Tokwe-Mukosi dam, set to be the largest inland
water body in the country, is under construction.
At this time of the year, Moyo is usually worried about where to acquire
agricultural inputs at an affordable price but today he is concerned about
being displaced from his ancestral land.

The sound of the caterpillars chewing the earth, drawing nearer and nearer
to his homestead everyday leaves him with sleepless nights.

“We do not know our fate as we are about to be evicted from this place to
pave way for construction of the dam. We have to leave the place that we
have called home since we were born, but the big question is where do we
start from?” said the father of five.

“We have not been given options of where to go. We should have been the ones
allocated farms in the land reform programme. What about our school-going
children? What about their uniforms? Oh no, not again!”.

Moyo is among the 6 000 villagers that are set to be displaced by the
government to pave way for the construction of Tokwe-Mukosi dam, which upon
completion would become the largest inland dam after Lake Mutirikwi in the
same province.

For a long time now, villagers have been trying to resist relocation.

When construction stalled a decade ago due to lack of funds, villagers
heaved a heavy sigh of relief, but the recurrent grumbling caterpillars have
rekindled their misery.

However, the villagers’ fate was sealed when the government allocated US$20
million for the construction of the dam in the previous budget.
Moyo’s worst fears were confirmed by Masvingo provincial governor Titus
Maluleke who said the villagers could end up being resettled out of his
province because of space constraints.

“We have run out of space for resettlement. We are looking for space in
Masvingo and elsewhere. This means that the villagers can be resettled in or
outside Masvingo, depending on where we get the land,” said Maluleke, who is
also the resident minister.

“Tiri Kutsvaga uta nemuhari (We are desperate). We will look for land from
farms which have been resettled by the new farmers. Probably we can have
some extra hectarage here and there that can be consolidated to settle some
few hundreds.”

A taskforce to scout for land has already been set up in the province.
Government will also look at conservancies to see if their owners could be
compelled to shrug off part of their land for the villagers.

“We will look for land wherever possible, including conservancies. We will
be making consultations with the relevant ministry,” said Maluleke.
“This is a national project that will benefit the nation, just like what
happened in the Chiadzwa diamond fields, so it should be given first
priority.”

Moyo’s wish for Tokwe-Mukosi

Like others villagers, Moyo’s wish is to be resettled near the dam so that
he may also benefit from the massive water project through irrigation.

“Even if it is a national project, we should be the immediate
 beneficiaries,” he said.  “We have been compromised a lot, abandoning
graves of our relatives whose remains will be drowned in the water. Can we
be sacrificed for the whole nation?”

But the government argues that once complete, the dam would be the panacea
to the perennial food shortages that have hit Masvingo for the past decades
as the water would be used for irrigation purposes.

It would also be used for electricity generation, thereby filling the void
left by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), which is failing
to adequately supply power to the nation.

Obituary: Peter Garlake 1934-2011

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 15:53

By Jonathan Waters
AT least to the academic world, Peter Garlake put to rest the “Mystery of
Great Zimbabwe” with his 1973 publication on the greatest historical site in
sub-Saharan Africa. Great Zimbabwe, the ruined stone settlement brought to
the attention of Western world by Karl Mauch in the late 19th Century, was
the capital of a local Shona state, having reached its zenith in the 14th
Century AD.

The white settlers had found that keeping the “mystery” alive by suggesting
Rhodesia was the Ophir of the Ancients, not only helped drive tourism, but
satisfied their own racist ideals in that the blacks were not sophisticated
enough to build this great stone structure on their own.

For the myth to thrive, the Rhodesians had it that ruins were built by the
Queen of Sheba, with King Solomon’s Mines in close proximity. Garlake, who
has died aged 77, resigned his post as Inspector of Monuments in 1970 when
it was demanded — in the Rhodesian Parliament no less —that he give an
“equal” platform to the “theory” that Great Zimbabwe was built by “light
skinned people”.

According to the member for Fort Victoria District, Colonel George Hartley
OBE, the “theory” that Great Zimbabwe was erected by indigenous people was
“nothing but pure conjecture”.

Where previous archaeologists hid to some degree behind scientific obscurity
to make their case for the construction by the local African people, Garlake
was unequivocal in his findings:

“Great Zimbabwe must be recognised for what it is — a building of peculiar
size and imposing grandeur, the product of two or three centuries of
development of an indigenous stone-building technique, itself rooted in long
traditions of using stone for field walls, building platforms and terraces.
“The structure reflects the economic dominance and prestige of a small
oligarchy that had arisen within an Iron Age subsistence economy.”

Peter Storr Garlake was born in Cape Town on January 11 1934, the son of a
soldier, “Dooley” Garlake, later Major-General, Commander of the forces in
the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland. His mother Catherine, a South
African of Scottish extraction, had a passion for animals and was
instrumental in setting up the SPCA in Rhodesia.

After completing senior school at St Georges College in Harare, Garlake went
on to read architecture at the University of Cape Town from 1952-1957.
After college, he left for England, finding a job as an architect in London
within two days of arriving.

Joining the Catholic Order was also a consideration, and he was drawn to a
Carmelite monastery at Aylesford in Kent, where he participated in
processions with relics of the revered local saint Simon Stock.

Enrolling at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology in London in 1961 for a post
graduate diploma, he met his future wife Margaret, who was studying
archaeological conservation.

They married in 1962, the year he was awarded a Nuffield Research
Studentship, which took him to the British Institute in Eastern Africa in
Dar es Salaam.

Here Garlake studied the architecture and archaeology of medieval Swahili
coast towns after which he published The Early Islamic Architecture of the
East African Coast (1966).
However, he went on to lecture at the History Department at the University
of Zimbabwe in 1984, a year before a full archaeology programme was set up.
While regarded as highly amusing in his private life, professionals found
him “prickly”, especially when it came to criticism from amateur and racist
quarters, and loony nationalists after 1980.
He received his doctorate in archaeology from SOAS in 1992.

He was fond of  ‘dzimbahwes’— houses of stone

A year before UDI in Rhodesia in 1965, Garlake was appointed Inspector of
Monuments.
In this position, he visited many of the ruined settlements or dzimbabwes
(“houses of stone”) that cover much of modern Zimbabwe, excavating two of
the smaller centres.

He also excavated three ancient Portuguese settlements in modern Zimbabwe —
Dambarare, Maramuca and Luanze — which had been occupied by the Portuguese
until they were overrun by Changamire in the late 17th Century.

However, finding his intellectual integrity increasingly compromised as the
racist politics of the settler regime impinged on his domain, he resigned
and left the country in 1970.

Having been offered a post at the University of Ife in Nigeria, Garlake led
two major excavations of sites with lifelike terracotta heads (now on
display in the British Museum).

During this time he also completed his Great Zimbabwe manuscript.

“The major question posed over the years — was Great Zimbabwe the unaided
work of indigenous Africans — has created lasting controversy, and probably
no other prehistoric site has aroused such strong, widespread and often
bizarre emotional responses.”

Garlake’s book brought together the work of early antiquarians and
archaeologists such as Randall McIver, ElizabethCaton-Thompson, Roger
Summers and Keith Robinson. Being free of the imaginative theories of later
archaeological symbolic, Garlake’s work remains the definitive work on the
facts of the subject.

From 1976 to 1981, Garlake held an appointment as Lecturer in the Department
of Anthropology at University College London during which time he carried
out excavations at Manekweni, a stone-walled settlement in Mozambique.

Garlake returned to Zimbabwe after Independence and was reportedly
disappointed at not being offered the top post in the National Museums &
Monuments.

However, he went on to lecture at the History Department at the University
of Zimbabwe in 1984, a year before a full archaeology programme was set up.
After his losing a complete manuscript on Zimbabwean Archaeology to a fire
at his Borrowdale homestead in the late 1980s, Garlake shifted his focus
again: this time to Zimbabwe’s diverse rock art. Building on his earlier
work The Painted Caves (1987), it was to culminate in his 1995 treatise, The
Hunter's Vision.

This he regarded as his magnum opus and it established Zimbabwean rock art
in a field of its own. Garlake popularised it with lecture tours to the US
and Europe where he would speak from a lifelike cave of paintings that had
been meticulously traced and re-created on a paper mache wall. Drawing on
many of the symbolic interpretations of Prof David Lewis-Williams and the
trance experience, Garlake went further to draw his own conclusions.

He said there was more to the shamanism of the San people as there was
something deeper in the art when it came to the wider religious experience.
He hypothesized that “formlings” – oval-shaped images unique to Zimbabwe
rock art – were an abstract representation of the physical manifestation of
“potency”, which he argued guides the worldview of San people.

Following publication of The Hunter's Vision, he took up rose growing,
delivering his produce to florists around Harare. Increasingly he started to
divide his time between Harare and London, and published his final book,
Early Art and Architecture of Africa, in 2002. An avid theatre goer, Garlake
enjoyed visiting cities in Europe and the Middle East, where he fed his love
of Islamic architecture. Believing “what you write is your memorial”,
Garlake opted for “green burial” and no ceremony. He is survived by sister
Carole, his wife Margaret, three children and six grandchildren.

Peter Storr Garlake, archaeologist and architect. Born January 11, 1934.
Died December 2, 2011

Proposed law trims more RBZ powers

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 14:38

BY OUR STAFF

THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ) powers are set to be trimmed further as
the central bank would no longer have authority to deregister or put banks
under curatorship in the new legislation that is awaiting President Robert
Mugabe’s assent to become law.

Under the Deposit Protection Corporation Bill that sailed through
Parliament, the Deposit Protection Board (DPB) that was housed under the
Banking Act would be turned into a statutory body, Deposit Protection
Corporation (DPC) independent of the central bank.

Clause 64 of the proposed legislation would amend the Banking Act and state
that the DPC should be consulted before banking institutions are registered,
de-registered or placed under curatorship.

It also states that banking institutions should keep the corporation
informed about the state of their business and requires RBZ supervisors to
co-operate with officials of the corporation.

The proposed legislation, while it is designed to protect depositors in the
event of bank failures, dilutes the influence of RBZ. It comes soon after
the amendments of the RBZ Act left the bank to concentrate on its core
business.

Before the amendments, the bank would, at the stroke of a pen, directed by
the Ministry of Finance, engage in activities that should be covered by
Treasury.

Although the functions would be similar to the existing board led by John
Chikura, the corporation would have power “to obtain information from
financial institutions that will allow it to detect early signs of
difficulties within the financial system”.

The corporation would also be given power to “administer failed or failing
institutions and, where possible, restore them to financial health”.

The proposed legislation states that RBZ shall appoint the DPC as the
provisional liquidator, provisional judicial manager, liquidator or judicial
manager of a banking institution.

Currently, RBZ appoints curators and provisional liquidators of banking
institutions.

There has been concern in the banking sector that RBZ wields too much power
and the proposed legislation would not have come at a better times according
to analysts.

The proposed legislation could also be seen as Finance minister Tendai Biti’s
moving to trim the powers of RBZ governor Gideon Gono through reforms in the
financial sector.

Biti and Gono have been fighting over reforms of the central bank. Biti won
round one of the battle after he steered through Parliament amendments of
the RBZ Act to make the institution concentrate on its core business.

Under Gono, seven banks — Time, Trust, Royal, Barbican, CFX, Intermarket and
ReNaissance — were put under curatorship for various misdemeanours.

Van Hoogstraten wants entire RTG board axed

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 14:36

BY NDAMU SANDU

RAINBOW Tourism Group’s (RTG) single largest shareholder, Nicholas van
Hoogstraten, wants the entire group’s board fired for bringing the company
on the brink of technical insolvency as a condition for a bail-out of over
US$20 million.

The RTG board is chaired by Econet executive, Tracy Mpofu.

The hospitality group desperately needs cash to retire expensive short-term
debt, complete hotel upgrades and re-align operating structures. It has
proposed a US$15 million re-capitalisation through the sale of one of its
properties for US$10 million and raising the remainder from existing
shareholders.

In an interview with Standardbusiness last week van Hoogstraten, who has a
36,5% stake in the company, said he had the money to bail-out the second
largest hospitality group but wants suitable guarantees.

“In view of the theft and frauds associated with the current board, clearly
no shareholder with a brain would give control of further monies to the same
persons,” he said. “Therefore the current board will need to be removed and
a forensic audit will be required to ascertain the factual financial
position.”

The money, van Hoogstraten said, would be provided by a rights issue and or
a convertible five-year bond with security on the assets of the company.

However, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) said no single
shareholder has the powers to fire the board.

James Matiza, NSSA general manager said: “It is not as simple as that. What
basis would that person be using? We know he holds shares in RTG but the
remainder is held by other shareholders who have the same rights,” said
Matiza.
NSSA has over 22% in RTG.

For the past six years, van Hoogstraten has been fighting for the control of
RTG but with little success.

His nominees for the board at previous Annual General Meetings were rejected
by shareholders.

The businessman said the current problems at the group stem from the fact
that his proposed directors were dishonestly denied their rights to
represent the major shareholder.

“It needs to be placed on record, and noted, that had NSSA and the Ministry
of Tourism not supported the incompetent and self-serving Econet-sponsored
board, RTG could not have been defrauded. In particular, NSSA and the
ministry voted against our nominated directors at the recent (and previous)
AGMs and must now accept responsibility for the current situation at RTG,”
he said.

Before the June AGM, van Hoogstraten had secured the support of NSSA which
had promised to vote for his directors. On the eve of the meeting, NSSA were
whipped into line by the Ministry of Tourism and told to vote against van
Hoogstraten.

In the end the businessman’s bid to appoint four directors — Shingirayi
Chibanguza, Alexander Hamilton, Maximilian Hamilton and Ian Haruperi — on
the board was blocked.

Matiza told Standardbusiness on Friday that it was wrong to blame the
pay-as-you-earn pension scheme for abetting the situation as it would not
take sides in the fight for the control of the hospitality group.

“We don’t want to gang up to fight others. We are a national institution and
we try to promote the interest of everybody,” Matiza said.

Matiza said he had met van Hoogstraten in December where they discussed the
re-capitalisation of RTG and he doesn’t remember him saying that board
members should be fired.

RTG has been a theatre of fights as shareholders flex muscles at the
detriment of the group which is failing to capitalise on the stable
political environment to grow its business.

Management contends that it has to be recapitalised in order to grow unlike
in the current scenario where it is growing using short-term loans.

Other than looking for money from shareholders, the group is disposing of
non-core assets.

In August, the group announced that it was disposing of its interest in
non-core assets such as Touch the Wild Private Limited, Hathanay Investments
Private Limited and Zimbabwe Mauritius Tours and Travel Private Limited
trading as Tourism Services Zimbabwe.

Correspondences have been flying between van Hoogstraten and a financial
advisory company on the urgency of the group’s re-capitalisation to avoid
slipping into insolvency.

If that were to happen, van Hoogstraten said, he would “take legal action
against the current board and those shareholders who sponsored, assisted, or
enabled them to defraud the company.”

There are now plans to allow the businessman to appoint directors on the
board which  van Hoogstraten insists would only happen after his concerns
have been addressed and a “major shareholder’’ legal agreement is in place.

RTG also has US$5,2 million locked in ReNaissance Merchant Bank, currently
under curatorship.

At a meeting of shareholders in June, van Hoogstraten said that the money
“shouldn’t be with Mickey Mouse people in the first place”.

MTP expected to bolster national economic growth

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 14:32

BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA

ZIMBABWE’S much lauded economic blueprint, Medium Term Plan (MTP), is
anticipated to bring about a sustainable annual economic growth rate of 7,1%
in the period 2011 to 2015 which should result in significant job creation
and poverty eradication.

The country’s unemployment rate is pegged at well over 80%, while the
majority of the population lives and earns below the poverty datum line of
US$500 on average.

MTP was launched against the background of a massive economic free-fall
witnessed in the last decade, precipitated by internecine conflict between
the country’s leading political parties and increased international
isolation.

In an endeavour to publicise the country’s economic achievements since
dollarisation in February 2009, the Ministry of Economic Planning and
Investment Promotion recently launched the Planning Bulletin with the
support of the United Nations Development Programme.
The bulletin would be regularly published in conjunction with economic
research findings from local academic institutions as the ministry moves
towards increasing policy-makers’ decision-making capabilities.

Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Permanent Secretary, Desire
Sibanda said that the country expects to achieve an economic growth rate of
9,4% in 2012 against a southern African region average growth rate of 5%.

Sibanda said Zimbabwe was on the path towards a sustainable growth
trajectory, a key factor which would serve to attract more foreign direct
investment inflows into the country.

“The economy has grown by leaps and bounds . . . If people in the world do
not know this, then they will not invest in the country,” he said, adding
that the bulletin would serve as a key imperative in government’s drive
towards re-engaging the international community.
Despite the constrained fiscal space alluded to by Finance minister Tendai
Biti in his recent budget statement, the MTP requires US$9,2 billion in
order to boost economic growth and create more employment among other
economic targets.

Funding is expected to emanate from internal savings and investment as well
as foreign credit lines.

The plan recognises that investment regulation, co-ordination and promotion
will be critical within the plan period.
However, the bulletin notes that the MTP faces major hurdles in the form of
wavering policy consistency, debt distress, and chronic deficits in
delivering basic public goods and services to the population and private
sector as well as an overall business environment that is not conducive to
external investment.

Several governments the world over have devised economic blueprints which
failed but they eventually developed pragmatic approaches to development
planning that saw them changing economic face for the better.

Japan’s 1946 Priority Production Plan, the tragedy of China’s 1958 Great
Leap Forward and the early failures of South Korea in the 1950s are a few
cases in point noted by the bulletin.

The bulletin also notes that a number of countries such as China, Brazil,
India, Malaysia and Kenya, which underwent a period of political upheavals,
among others, have successfully developed planning blueprints.

“Through the consistent application of development plans, these countries
have managed to register impressive rates of economic growth that has seen
them graduate from their developing country status to newly emerging
developed economies,” Sibanda said.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai noted that mixed messages from the
inclusive government have largely led to policy inconsistency and
unpredictability, thereby sending negative signals to the local and foreign
investors.

The incessant political bickering and uncertain calls for an early election
in 2012, despite failure by the principals to consummate the Global
Political Agreement, have only served as an albatross on the blueprint’s
objectives.

Editor's Desk: My New Year’s pledge: Stop playing the Lotto

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Saturday, 31 December 2011 16:29

BY NEVANJI MADANHIRE

My New Year’s resolution is that I will stop playing the Lotto, because, I’ve
realised only fools believe in luck. Instead I’ll write a book that will win
the Booker Award; it will be the first book by a writer living outside the
British Isles to win the award.

It’ll also win the Commonwealth Literature prize if Comrade You-Know-Who
agrees to have the country readmitted into the Commonwealth. I’ll win these
prizes not by luck but by sheer hard work.

The book will be about a boy called Toni. He lives at a place called
Mangoromera in St Mary’s township. Toni apparently is orphaned; he has been
told that his mother was abducted by war vets in 2008 when he was an infant.
She was never heard of again.

The mother had been an apprentice prostitute; her mentor was the woman
popularly known as MaGumbo, who sells lots of things at the Big Bhawa
including what she calls Gunpowder. Men love MaGumbo’s gunpowder which they
mix with sorghum beer or cow-hoof soup; they say it brings harmony to their
bedrooms.

MaGumbo adopted Toni when his mother disappeared or was abducted by the war
vets. They live in a wooden cabin which Toni thinks is a dog kennel. When
Toni was still only a year old the cabin caught fire; he lost all his
right-hand fingers in the fire but the thumb survived. So Toni is sometimes
called Toni Thumb.

He dislikes the name insisting that he is simply Toni but on his clinic
card, the only document testifying to his existence, he is referred to as
Toni Wachikoro. When Magumbo took him there for treatment, she realised the
boy had no surname and told the nurse so. The nurse asked: “So whatchwecall
him?” and Magumbo agreed saying, “Yes, Wachikoro?” The nurse scribbled the
name on the card.

Toni belongs to the “Wachiko-ro” generation; a unique group of people born
in Zimbabwe in the new millennium. Mangoromera is their home. Do you know
what mangoromera means? It means the charms (muti) used by boxers to enhance
their chances of winning a bout.

There is always a fight at Mangoromera and Toni enjoys the fights. He isn’t
the only one, everybody enjoys the fights at Mangoromera. Toni wants to be a
boxing ref when he grows up. He knows all the rules already.

The fights are not always in the ring but mostly outside it. There are two
groups or gangs at Mangoromera. One comprises two characters calling
themselves Comrade Forward Ever and Comrade Backward Never. They are war
vets. Toni is always in trouble with these two because he often mixes up the
surnames calling them Cde Forward Never and Cde Backward Ever. They don’t
like him when he refers to them that way accusing him of being an agent of
the West; Toni has no clue what that means. Their leader is a burly war vet
calling himself Cde Vanguard Consciousness. Toni can never say the name, so
he calls him Cde God!

This gang has other members, mostly fat women who always sing liberation war
songs and young men who call themselves mamonya, which means thugs. The
women’s dress bears the president’s head mostly on their protruding parts.
It’s this gang against the rest of residents of Mangoromera, who call
themselves the Chinja (Change) Brigade.

Toni belongs to both gangs. That is how he has managed to survive. You see
Toni knows that the shop owners at Mangoromera secretly support the Chinja
Brigade but they are afraid to come out into the open for fear of Cde
Vanguard Consciousness. You see Cde Vanguard Consciousness calles meeting
every night and everyone should attend. At the meetings anyone who is deemed
to sympathise with the Chinja Brigade is called to the front and lectured
about western neo-colonialism and the look-east policy. To make sure the
message sinks he is beaten up according to what they call “the way”.

Toni has a knack for being everywhere people, especially businessmen, are
discussing politics particularly chinja politics. That’s how he gets his
food. When they have said more than enough he announces his presence by a
giggle. When they see him he raises his hand, the one with only the thumb
and smiles his cynical smile.

His thumbs-up sign and that smile are a bad omen for the businessmen. They
often angrily say to him, “Toni, what’re you doing here?” but quickly tone
down their anger. “Toni, here is a packet of maputi.” So Toni secures
another meal.

If a businessman has been particularly stingy, Toni knows how to fix him. He
would deliberately be seen walking around with the Comrades Gang, all
lovey-dovey. Then later he would go to the businessman’s shop and mill
around. “What do you want here, you little devil?” the businessman would say
angrily.

But realising his mistake immediately, he would take a number of buns and
offer them to Toni. “But I also need a drink to wash down the buns,” Toni
would say. So Toni gets his dinner!

There is the mistaken belief that every story must have a moral; this one
doesn’t. It is just about a boy belonging to a nameless generation that has
learnt only one lesson in politics, namely that politics is a dirty game but
one can thrive very well in the muck.

Someone might steal my idea, so I won’t go into further details. Suffice to
say the book will have a happy ending.
The final paragraph will read:

Cde Vanguard Consciousness was now all worked up. He pointed at Toni and
told the crowd, “We’ve to discipline them while they’re still young. This
urchin here, Toni, has been destroying the party from within. He has been
passing party secrets to the Chinja people.” The crowd, which had gathered
that evening for political lessons, remained quiet. One could hear a pin
drop. In a fit of rage Cde Vanguard Consciousness pulled a machete from
under his overcoat and chopped off Toni’s thumb. Toni did not cry, he raised
what remained of his palm and smiled. His best friend The Graduate stood up
and asked the crowd, “Why did he do it?” The crowd surged toward the burly
man.”
The happy ending will be that I’ll win the Booker.

Standard Comment: A year of abject lessons for Africa

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/

Today we celebrate the New Year. Like the fabled Janus who had two faces;
one looking backwards while the other looked to the future, it is time for
us not only to reflect on the year gone but also to anticipate the future.
The year just ended was eventful on the continental front. It began with the
Arab Spring uprisings that saw the demise of entrenched dictatorship in
North Africa. The fall mid-January of long-time Tunisian strongman Ben Ali
after 23 years in power triggered a wave of protests throughout the Islamic
Maghreb whose climax was the capture and execution of Libyan dictator
Muammar Gadaffi in October.

In its wake the Arab Spring also saw the fall of Egyptian leader Hosni
Mubarak who had ruled for 30 years. The uprisings spread across the
Mediterranean into the Middle East where they are still raging.

It is still a mystery why the uprisings didn’t spread southwards into
sub-Saharan Africa although there were some harmless skirmishes in
Swaziland.
The main lesson to learn is how dictators become increasingly detached from
the lives of the people they purport to lead. It took the self-emollition of
26-year-old Tunisian vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi to jolt the whole
Arab world into consciousness.

But surprisingly dictatorships in sub-Saharan Africa haven’t taken heed and
seem to be further entrenching themselves in power instead of reforming. The
sham elections held recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo have
already been endorsed by other dictators in the region even when they
clearly destabilise that country. The trend of holding sham elections seems
the norm in the region but these will continue to blight the whole
subcontinent which otherwise has the potential to be a beacon for the whole
continent.

The Arab uprisings have not brought the expected stability to North Africa;
in fact the opposite has happened. What Zimbabweans should read from this is
the importance of truly free and fair elections as the only way to change
undesired regimes. This means the parties to the GPA should play their party
in ensuring the crafting of an election roadmap that guarantees this.

Pass the Formaldehyde – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary: 31st December 2011

                  New Year’s greetings from the Vigil

The end of the year is traditionally a time for reflection and at the last Vigil of 2011 we discussed likely developments at home in the next twelve months. Sadly they were rather pessimistic. Few people at the Vigil expect a happy outcome in Zimbabwe to 2012.

There was agreement at the Vigil on the most likely options:

1.         The situation could continue as it is for another year with halting progress on the constitution front, not helped by Mugabe spending most of his time flying to and from Singapore for medical treatment. The MDC says it will refuse to agree to elections until the right conditions are in place and, given the lack of urgency shown by Zuma, elections are unlikely before they are constitutionally due in 2013 – if then!

2.         Zanu PF (and we include in this military leaders), desperate to see a dying Mugabe returned to office, could engineer elections by collapsing the government – for instance, arresting Tsvangirai (see: Tsvangirai fraud probe complete – https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/dec23a_2011.html#Z1).

People at the Vigil made a number of observations including the urgent question of what happens if Mugabe dies before the elections? Would we even know? Will Zanu PF do a Franco and keep Mugabe going with ever increasing doses of formaldehyde until no one knows if he is alive or dead? More seriously, can we expect Zanu PF to do anything else but go into emergency mode, with Defence Minister Mnangagwa or General Chiwenga openly seizing power? They would then employ their usual violence and vote rigging to stay in office – in defiance of SADC bleating.

Other points

·         The MDC UK is joining the Vigil for a demonstration outside South African House on Saturday 21^st January. It is part of an MDC global protest to urge South Africa to pressure Mugabe to honour the Global Political Agreement. More details next week.

·         Our wristband ‘Mugabe Must Go’ has been popular over the years, but, given Mugabe’s medical condition, we can’t bank on them much longer so as from next week they will be available at sale price.

·         We were joined by a foreign diplomat who is being posted to Harare. The diplomat came to hear what we had to say and is to come to the Vigil again.

·         Thanks to Margaret Gotora for bringing chocolates and doughnuts for us to share on New Year’s Eve.

For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website – they cannot be downloaded from the slideshow on the front page of the Zimvigil website.

FOR THE RECORD: 35 signed the register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

·         The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organisation based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organisation on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents the views and opinions of ROHR.

·         ZBN News. The Vigil management team wishes to make it clear that the Zimbabwe Vigil is not responsible for Zimbabwe Broadcasting Network News (ZBN News). We are happy that they attend our activities and provide television coverage but we have no control over them. All enquiries about ZBN News should be addressed to ZBN News.

·         The Zim Vigil band (Farai Marema and Dumi Tutani) has launched its theme song ‘Vigil Yedu (our Vigil)’ to raise awareness through music. To download this single, visit: www.imusicafrica.com and to watch the video check: http://ourvigil.notlong.com. To watch other Zim Vigil band protest songs, check: http://Shungurudza.notlong.com and http://blooddiamonds.notlong.com.

·         ROHR Leicester monthly meeting. Saturday 7^th January from  1:30 – 4:30 pm. Venue: New Walk Museum Café, 53 New Walk, Leicester LE1 7EA. Contact Rachael Munda 07989093661, Enniah Dube 07403439707 or Lorraine Manenji 07854801250

·         Vigil Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts.

·         Vigil Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil.

·         ‘Through the Darkness’, Judith Todd’s acclaimed account of the rise of Mugabe.  To receive a copy by post in the UK please email confirmation of your order and postal address to ngwenyasr@yahoo.co.uk and send a cheque for £10 payable to “Budiriro Trust” to Emily Chadburn, 15 Burners Close, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 0QA. All proceeds go to the Budiriro Trust which provides bursaries to needy A Level students in Zimbabwe.

Vigil co-ordinators

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitore  `1d, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.