http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
19 January
2010
The top leadership of the MDC is to convene an urgent meeting to
review the
party's position in the Global Political Agreement talks, that
have failed
to take off twice in the last four days.
The standing
committee, known as 'the top 12', will meet in the next few
days to look at
the state of the negotiations since talks broke off in
December last
year.
On Tuesday a source in the MDC said party negotiators Tendai Biti
and Elton
Mangoma were fuming about the latest delaying tactics by ZANU PF
and
weighing how to respond.
The two MDC-T negotiators met Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at his
offices to brief him on the stalled talks.
ZANU PF negotiators Patrick
Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche had failed to
attend Monday's rescheduled start
of the GPA talks, which had also been
cancelled on Saturday due to a ZANU PF
no show.
The MDC information
department were set to release a statement early on
Tuesday over the
delaying tactics, but were asked to wait until after their
negotiators'
meeting with Tsvangirai. The meeting was also expected to
discuss the
implications of South African President Jacob Zuma' statement
early this
week, that Tsvangirai should be 'flexible' in some of the demands
to ZANU
PF.
'I think a statement will be issued eventually because the party is
sick and
tired of these delaying tactics by ZANU PF,' our source said. MDC
national
spokesman Nelson Chamisa told SW Radio Africa that both Chinamasa
and Goche
were in Harare on Monday and he was surprised they were playing
hardball
with the negotiations.
'Kungoda kunetsa chete, vainge
varimuHarare nezuro (they are being
intransigent they were in Harare
yesterday),' Chamisa said.
Political analyst Munjodzi Mutandiri said it was
disrespectful to the masses
of Zimbabweans, who had made their choice known
during the March 2008
elections, to be continously subjected to these
delaying tactics by ZANU PF.
'I also think the MDC is lacking in terms of
strategy and clarity and how to
move forward in view of these outstanding
issues. We've seen in the past
they've given ultimatums which were never
carried out. This has given ZANU
PF the belief the MDC doesn't have the
capacity to carry out its threats and
ultimatums,' Mutandiri said.
He
added; 'So ultimately this is a pattern we will continue to see until we
have elections. Basically ZANU PF is setting the pace and allowing the MDC
to respond.'
On Friday last week, Tsvangirai's party said it will stick
to its demands
over the outstanding issues in the GPA. The MDC wants Mugabe
to fire central
bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes
Tomana, saying their
appointments were unconstitutional. They are also
demanding the power to
appoint provincial regional governors and want Mugabe
to swear in Roy
Bennett, currently on trial for terrorism-related charges,
as deputy
agriculture minister.
ZANU PF accuse the MDC of reneging on its
commitment to persuade
the US and the European Union to lift travel bans and
asset freezes against
its leaders, imposed in 2002, following the human
rights abuses and
repression targeting the opposition.
Last week SADC
leaders meeting in Maputo, Mozambique said they were 'unhappy'
with the slow
pace of negotiations aimed at ending the political crisis in
the
country.
The 15-nation SADC bloc brokered an accord in February 2009 that
resulted in
Mugabe and Tsvangirai forming an unsteady power sharing
government. Since
then, Tsvangirai's MDC has accused Mugabe of violating
terms of the
agreement.
The MDC leader temporarily withdrew his party
from the coalition in October
last year. But he reversed his decision in
November following talks mediated
by SADC. Since then there has been no
change to the situation.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet Gonda
19
January 2010
The senior police officer who allegedly threatened journalist
Stanley Kwenda
with death has been revealed as the notorious Assistant
Commissioner
Chrispen Makedenge, whose name has been connected with
abductions and
torture of perceived opponents of the ZANU PF regime.
The
journalist reportedly fled to South Africa after receiving a phone call
last
Friday from the Assistant Commissioner telling him he'd be 'dead by the
end
of the week, because of a story he wrote for The Zimbabwean newspaper.
Wilf
Mbanga, the editor of the paper, told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that
Kwenda
had written a story last week quoting the relatives of Makedenge's
late
wife, who committed suicide last year.
The relatives reportedly told The
Zimbabwean newspaper that Makedenge was a
'very violent' man and had
allegedly threatened his wife.
Mbanga said: 'Apparently she killed herself
because she had been threatened
by him and she allegedly left a suicide
note, which has not been found.
Some people say the letter was collected by
the police but has since been
destroyed and it is believed that letter tells
the whole story of Makedenge's
thuggish behaviour."
"The relatives of his
late wife approached us, approached Stanley to give
him the story and
because they wanted the matter investigated," added
Mbanga.
The officer
commanding the Law and Order section of the Harare Central
Police Station
has over the years been associated with the arrest of MDC
members and human
rights activists, including Secretary General Tendai Biti
and civic leader
Jestina Mukoko.
In 2008, about 32 political and civil activists were abducted
from their
homes and tortured while in the hands of the police and state
agents.
Makedenge was named as one of the architects of these political
abductions.
Although the Assistant Police Commissioner has been named in
court in
connection with the rights abuses, nothing has been done by the
authorities
in Zimbabwe.
However, Mbanga pointed out that a few years ago
the dreaded police officer
was recalled from a United Nations peacekeeping
mission to Sudan because of
his appalling human rights record.
Wilf
Mbanga said: "Makedenge is known to carry out his threats so Stanley
was
left with no option but to seek refuge in South Africa."
"We are calling on
the Commissioner of Police to make sure that policemen do
not use their
positions to settle scores. This is clearly an abuse of office
by this
officer."
"He (the journalist) has not threatened State security. He wrote
about
Makedenge's violence against his family. And if Makedenge has anything
against Stanley he should go to court in his private capacity and not
threaten to kill him," said Mbanga.
We were not able to get a comment
from Assistant Commissioner Makedenge.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
19 January
2010
Two student activists at the National University of Science and
Technology
(NUST) were last week arrested and brutally beaten up by police
in Bulawayo.
Brian Mtisi and Joram Chikwadze were arrested after they led a
group of
students to court to follow proceedings at the trial of an
accountant
accused of defrauding the university of US$19 000 in mostly
student fees.
On Tuesday Mtisi told Newsreel that he arrived at the court
last week only
for an overzealous Sergeant Ngwenya from the police Law and
Order section to
accuse them of trying to incite violence. Mtisi accused the
university's
Chief Security Officer of having connived with the police to
get them
arrested. The accountant who is being tried is alleged to be a
close
relative of the Vice Chancellor and the students have been taken an
interest
in the case to see how it pans out.
After they were arrested
Mtisi and Chikwadze were then taken to a dark room
at Bulawayo Central
police station and assaulted for over 3 hours. Mtisi
told us they were
thrown into a filthy police cell without food or water for
two days. 'We
walked barefooted in what looked like sewage,' he said. They
spent a total
of 3 days in custody and were only released Friday. Mtisi
sustained head
injuries while Chikwadze sustained a fractured arm during the
assaults. The
two were forced to pay a US$10 fine each.
With this ordeal over both students
had to confront another problem. This
time it was the university refusing to
allow them back on campus even as
exams are in progress.
Meanwhile
Newsreel has been told that the National University of Science and
Technology has had no student's representative council in place since April
last year, when most student leaders were suspended and eventually expelled
around August. 'This has seen the university imposing its will on the
students willy-nilly without an SRC to challenge them,' a source told
us.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, January 19, 2010 -
Only a quarter of Zimbabweans still support
President Robert Mugabe, a top
US poll has revealed.
The poll was done in Washington DC by a company
known as Gallop
International Limited which is among the top firms in the
world as far as
political surveys are concerned.
Last year the Gallop
poll predicted that current US President Barack Obama
would sweep the
Presidential race in the US. Obama won that election.
"The Gallop poll says
three out of four Zimbabweans do not support President
Mugabe," a senior US
official said.
"This means that only a quarter of Zimbabweans still support
the President
which should be worrying for him since he expects to run for
another term if
elections are held next year."
The poll, however, did not
say how much support current Prime Minister and
President of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC-T), Morgan Tsvangirai,
had.
It only surveyed
Zimbabweans about their feelings about Mugabe who has been
at the helm of
local politics since Independence in 1980.
Mugabe heads Zanu PF which is
currently going through turbulent times
especially in the rural areas where
it used to garner most of its support.
The Gallop poll also showed that less
than one percent of Zimbabweans living
in the cities still support
Mugabe.
The MDC-T has in the past won most of the city municipalities much to
the
dismay of Zanu PF.
However, Local Government Minister, Ignatious
Chombo, has continuously
frustrated MDC-T councilors by either firing them
or suspending them.
The poll said that if President Mugabe stood against
Tsvangirai he would
lose dismally as he is "not loved by Zimbabweans any
longer".
http://www.radiovop.com
Masvingo, January 19, 2010 - Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) provincial
chairman for Masvingo Wilstaff Sitimere
was arrested on Tuesday morning for
yet unknown charges, although family
members speculated that it could be as
a result of the rally he addressed
over the weekend where he told supporters
that President Robert Mugabe must
not be allowed to cheat the people again.
Masvingo provincial
police spokesperson Inspector Tinaye Mateke confirmed
the arrest. "He was
arrested by the police today and he is assisting us with
investigations. I
can not give details as to why he was arrested for now but
all you need to
know is that Sitimere was arrested."
His son, Raphael Sitemere, said five
police officers arrested his father at
the family's house in Masvingo's low
density suburb of Rhodene. He said
there was nothing his father had done
besides having a rally in Masvingo
North where he lost to Zanu PF's Stan
Mudenge in March 2008 by a slim
margin.
"We suspect that he was
arrested because of the message he was telling
people at a rally last week.
He was saying Mugabe must not be allowed to
cheat people again. He urged
villagers to stand firm and refuse to be abused
by Zanu PF in any manner,"
said the son. "Soon after the rally last weekend,
my father continuously
received messages that he was going too far in
insulting the president and
his office. Besides that I do not know why he
was arrested."
"We are
still in state of shock, we are not sure of what happened, we are
only aware
that he was arrested but we do not have a clue as to why Sitimere
was
arrested. We are going to meet soon and come up with a way forward,"
said
party provincial spokesperson and Masvingo Urban legislator Tongai
Matutu.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Jan 19, 2010, 17:56
GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on
Tuesday
resisted pressure for elections next year, in opposition to calls
made by
South African President Jacob Zuma over the weekend.
Zuma is
charged with the task of facilitating the resolution of issues
threatening
the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that
created the
Zimbabwe's power sharing government last year, and he is pushing
for
elections next year.
'President Zuma cannot push for elections in
Zimbabwe,' Tsvangirai told the
German Press Agency dpa. 'The elections in
Zimbabwe will be defined by the
GPA. The GPA says after the referendum the
president and prime minister will
set the date for the
election.'
Tsvangirai said that once ongoing talks produce a draft
constitution, a
referendum would be held to endorse it, and only then would
a date be set
for elections.
'So I think that people should not
preempt a process which is already there
and which is understood by all
parties to be the law,' he added.
Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe
formed a coalition government nearly
a year ago to end a political crisis
following an inconclusive election in
June 2008.
The government has
stabilized Zimbabwe's economy and ended the
hyperinflation that reigned at
the height of the country's economic
meltdown.
As a result living
conditions for many ordinary Zimbabweans have greatly
improved compared to
2008 when the country battled shortages of cash
, fuel and basic
commodities.
But unending bickering between Mugabe's ZANU(PF) and
Tsvangirai's MDC as
well as the coalition government's inability to secure
direct financial
support from Western nations have held back the
administration's efforts to
rebuild the economy.
The MDC wants
Mugabe, among other things, to fire central bank
governor Gideon Gono and
Attorney General Johannes Tomana, saying their
appointments were
unconstitutional.
Mugabe's party on the other hand has accused the MDC of
reneging on its
commitment to persuade the US and the European Union
to
lift travel bans and asset freezes against its leaders imposed in 2002
following a spate of human rights abuses and repression targeting the
opposition.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has
called for the
standoff to end. In a meeting of the regional economic
grouping's leaders in
Mozambique last Thursday, SADC praised Zuma's efforts
to revive the flagging
unity government.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Tuesday 19 January
2010
HARARE - Zimbabwe Energy Minister Elias Mudzuri has backed down
on his
decision to stop struggling Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(ZESA)
from exporting power to Namibia.
Last week Mudzuri told
ZimOnline that he had ordered the country's power
utility ZESA to stop
exporting power to Namibia since Hwange power station
was not working
properly.
But Mudzuri on Tuesday said ZESA will still honour the US$40
million power
export deal it signed with Namibia's power utility - NamPower
- in 2007.
"The government of Zimbabwe and ZESA remain committed to the
terms of both
the loan agreement and the power purchase agreement as well as
the Southern
Africa Power Pool trading protocols," Mudzuri said in a
statement. "Any
changes and improvement to the agreement are to be done
within the context
of the agreement itself."
In 2007, ZESA entered a
deal with NamPower in which it provided a US$40
million loan to refurbish
Hwange power station. In return ZESA would supply
electricity to
Namibia.
But frequent breakdowns at Hwange have meant ZESA has had to
import power
from other regional suppliers for export to Namibia to comply
with the 2007
deal, and Mudzuri last week ordered ZESA to stop power exports
until Hwange
is back in operation - a decision the minister has now
reversed.
Zimbabwe generates 1 100MW far below the required 2
000MW.
ZESA's inability over the years to boost generation capacity at
its ageing
power stations and a critical shortage of foreign currency to
import
adequate electricity from neighbouring countries has left Zimbabwe
grappling
with severe power shortages.
The Zimbabwean energy firm
says cash-rich foreign investors remain reluctant
to provide funding badly
needed to boost power generation because of
uncertainty about the country's
future political and economic direction.
A coalition government formed by
President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and deputy Premier
Arthur Mutambara has brought a degree
of stability to Zimbabwe's political
situation but the future remains
uncertain.
Incessant squabbling
between Mugabe and Tsvangirai has left political
analysts wondering about
the Harare coalition government's long-term
viability while most potential
investors appear to have adopted a wait and
see attitude before they can
consider making any significant investments in
the country. - ZimOnline
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
18 January 2010
Two
men accused of plotting to overthrow Robert Mugabe's government in 2007
have
renewed their efforts to be released on bail, almost three years since
their
arrest and imprisonment.
Patson Mupfure and Nyasha Zivuku were arrested
along with five other men in
mid 2007, for allegedly planning to topple
Mugabe in a coup. Their
co-accused are Shingirai Mutemachani, Oncemore
Mudzurahowa, Emmanuel Marara,
and Albert Matapo, a former senior army
officer. The group was charged with
treason and face the death penalty if
found guilty, but the group is yet to
stand trial. They have instead
remained behind bars at Chikirubi Maximum
Security prison ever since their
arrest, waiting for a final date to be set
for their High Court
appearance.
Mupfure and Zivuku filed an application for bail last
Thursday, a case that
has since been postponed to allow the State time to
respond. But it is
unlikely the State prosecutors will move swiftly on this
case, as even a
much earlier application made in the Supreme Court,
challenging the legality
of the group's prosecution, has been deferred
indefinitely.
The accused pair both deny the charges leveled against them
stating that
none of the state witnesses listed by the prosecution in the
case against
the alleged coup plotters, even know them. Mupfure, who was
employed as a
Principal Instructor in the then Ministry of Public Service,
Labour and
Social Welfare justified his bail application by stating that he
has a
family and elderly parents to look after. Zikuvu also stated that he
is a
bread winner to his wife, two children and his elderly parents. He also
indicated that he needs medical attention as a result of the injuries he
sustained during torture sessions by the police and state security agents in
2007.
The coup plot was allegedly set to involve almost 400 soldiers
and
high-ranking members of the military, and it allegedly would have
occurred
on June 2 or June 15, 2007. According to the then ZANU PF
government the
soldiers planned on forcibly removing Mugabe from office and
asking then
Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to form a government
with the
heads of the armed forces.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Gerry Jackson
19th January
2010
Thabita Taona, who was arrested Monday during a peaceful WOZA
demonstration,
will spend another night in Harare Central Police Station as
an
investigating officer as not been assigned to the case. Until this
happens
charges cannot be formally brought against her.
Police have
been engaged in their normal delaying tactics but she has seen
her lawyer
and has received the food brought to her. WOZA report that
Thabita has also
been 'extensively interrogated' about who else was in the
demonstration with
her.
A WOZA statement says: 'The man caught 'in the cross-fire', Comfort
Nyakura,
was released last night (Monday) after his employer confirmed that
he had
been at work at the time of the demonstration and was merely on his
lunch
break'.
Freelance journalist Shadreck Manyere was the third
person arrested Monday,
but he was not held for long.
Members of
Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise were protesting the exorbitant
school fees
and the destruction of the education sector and had tried to
present a
report on the failing education system to Minister David Coltart.
Their
report contains recommendations and a list of demands from parents,
but riot
police disrupted the demonstration.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex
Bell
19 January 2010
Tensions in Rusape were still high on Tuesday as
a standoff between a gang
of land invaders and a local farming family
continued.
Koos Smit and his family have remained locked inside their
home on their De
Rust tobacco farm, with the mob of youths intent on
evicting them off the
property still camped on the land. The mob, working
for a ZANU PF official
known only as Mr Mukomo, were bussed onto the
property last Tuesday to
forcibly evict the family, beating up the family's
workers as well as the
twin Smit sons. Since then, the family has sought
refuge inside their home
amid a worsening crisis, with the invaders trying
everything to force them
out. All water and electricity supplies to the
property have been cut off,
and the Smits have also been denied access to
their animals, which are
suffering.
Deon Theron, the President of the
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) explained
on Tuesday that the situation was
still tense, although relatively calm.
"If this was a hospital situation
you'd say it was still critical, but at
least stable," Theron
explained.
He continued that the land invaders have been less
intimidating over the
past 24 hours, appearing to have 'backed off' their
efforts to flush the
family out of their home. Theron explained that the
situation is still
desperate, with no water or food going into the house.
But he added that he
understands why the family refuses to leave.
"It
is crucial for them to hang on to their property, because if they flee,
they'll lose absolutely everything," Theron explained. "Their house will be
ransacked, emptied out by these land invaders."
The ongoing farm
attacks and forced eviction of productive commercial
farmers could not come
at a worse time, as warnings are mounting about
imminent food shortages.
Commercial farmers have previously expressed
concern that not enough food is
being produced to feed the country, that
ironically used to be referred to
as the 'bread basket' of Africa. This has
been as a result of the onslaught
against the farming community, which has
seen close to 200 productive farms
seized and all food production halted in
the past 12 months alone. In the
past ten years the food growing capacity of
nearly 5,000 farms has been
destroyed and a million farm workers have lost
their homes and their
livelihoods.
The United Nations Famine Early Warning System Network
(FEWSNET) has also
warned that Zimbabweans face severe hunger in the coming
months because of
poor rainfall. FEWSNET reported in an update on Southern
Africa's food
security that it was expecting crop failures in areas such as
Masvingo,
Gwanda, Bulawayo and parts of Manicaland. It said this was as a
result of
below average rainfall and high temperatures experienced so far
this year.
Other parts of the country are also barren, with combined land
invasions and
dry conditions resulting in more crop failures.
FEWSNET
said in its report that close to 2.2 million Zimbabweans would be
food
insecure between January and March this year, which is up from last
year's
estimates of 1.7 million people needing food aid. FEWSNET said the
UN World
Food Programme planned to increase its food assistance activities
from
January to cover the food insecure population. WFP has however warned
of a
major shortfall of cereals between December 2009 and March 2010, which
will
likely see less people receiving food than planned.
The CFU's Theron
explained that land 'reform' has been the biggest player in
Zimbabwe's ever
decreasing levels of food production, saying that rainfall
generally has
only played a small part in the food crisis. Theron said that
ever since the
land grab campaign was initiated, food production has dropped
'year after
year', "and there's only been one severe drought."
"If our members are
not able or not allowed to produce crops then rainfall
is irrelevant,"
Theron said.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=26671
January 19, 2010
By Our
Correspondent
MUTARE - Police here are said to be moving in to arrest the
directors of
Matanuska (Pvt) Ltd a private company owned by foreign
investors, which was
invaded by a retired top army commander over the
festive season. Police
sources in Mutare said on Monday that two directors
of Matanuska were
expected to be arrested any time soon on charges of
operating on Fangundu
Farm without an offer letter.
Fangundu Farm,
which is owned by Matanuska, was invaded by a retired major
general, Edzai
Chimonyo over the festive season.
Chimonyo, who is Zimbabwe's ambassador
to Tanzania was immediately ordered
by the High Court to vacate the
property. He has defied the order.
Last week Chimonyo approached the High
Court in Harare seeking to have the
ruling against him by the same
court.
The police in Mutare say two directors of the beleaguered farming
company,
Johannes Makurumidze and Richard Chiwandire face imminent arrest
for
allegedly violating sections of the Land Acquisition Act in that their
company continued to occupy Fangundu Farm without an offer
letter.
Last week the two were went to Mutare Central police station in
the company
of their lawyer, Trust Maanda, but were told the police were
still compiling
the docket against them.
"They will soon be arrested
and charged under Section Three of the Land
Acquisition Act," said a senior
police officer in Mutare.
Fangundu Farm, a banana plantation in Burma
Valley, south east of Mutare, is
owned by Matanuska (PVT) Ltd, a company
whose shareholders are Malaysian and
Dutch property investors, Property
Route Toute BV.
Property Route Toute BV, registered in The Netherlands,
is recognized and
approved as an investor through the Zimbabwe Investment
Centre.
The official said individuals believed to be elements of the
Zimbabwe
National Army were still camped at Fangundu Farm despite a court
ruling
ordering them to vacate the property but they had since stopped
harvesting
bananas from the occupied plantation.
The former army
chief arrived on the property on 18 December last year on
the grounds he had
been given an offer letter in 2006 by Didymus Mutasa,
then lands minister.
Government sources say he was in the presence of senior
lands officials from
Mutare.
The invasion of Fangundu Farm could have far reaching
implications on
Zimbabwe's quest to attract direct foreign investment in a
country desperate
for a quick recovery from a devastating economic meltdown.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Sebastian Nyamhangambiri Tuesday
19 January 2010
HARARE – High Court judge Chinembiri Bhunu will on
Thursday make a ruling on
whether gun dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann – a
key state witness in a
treason trial of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s top aide Roy
Bennett – will be impeached for becoming a
“hostile” witness.
If Bhunu allows the state to impeach Hitschmann, this
would pave way for the
prosecution to cross-examine the arms dealer on the
key statement
incriminating Bennett that the gun dealer had sought to render
irrelevant by
disowning it in court.
“The state has made a case of
impeachment so that the truth and justice can
be found,” said Attorney
General Johannes Tomana as he finished his
application to have Hitschmann,
who has turned into a problematic witness
for the state,
impeached.
Hitschmann maintained that he was not being hostile, arguing
that the state
was not being sincere in its case because he had notified it
through an
affidavit last November that he did not want to testify against
Bennett, a
senior official of Tsvangirai’s MDC party.
“In fact what
Mr Tomana, has done is to deceive this honourable court and
has wasted
valuable time and resources and caused additional and unnecessary
stress to
me,” said Hitschmann, a former police officer dismissing the state
application to impeach him as “obscure, to say the very lease, for it makes
no sense to me”.
“He knew from the onset that I had nothing to
contribute as far as the state
case against the accused (Bennett) is
concerned.”
Prosecutors allege Hitschmann was paid by Bennett to buy
weapons to
assassinate President Robert Mugabe. They say Hitschmann
implicated Bennett
in 2006 when he was arrested after being found in
possession of firearms.
“I would have been delighted if the fire arms had
been in possession of the
accused, but regrettably, they were in my
possession, and he (Bennett) had
nothing to do with them being in my
possession,” said Hitschmann.
Bennett faces a possible death sentence if
found guilty in a case that has
heightened tensions in Zimbabwe’s fragile
coalition government.
The MDC says the case against him is politically
motivated and aimed at
keeping him out of the unity government it formed
with Mugabe's ZANU PF
party last February. – ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Tuesday 19
January 2010
HARARE – Zimbabwe has run out of options on how to
service a staggering US$6
billion debt it owes international lending
institutions that is now
hampering the coalition government’s efforts to
resuscitate the country’s
economy ravaged by a decade-long recession, a
senior government official
said on Monday.
"This is a very huge debt
and is really impacting on the operations of
government. We have to resolve
the debt crisis as a matter of urgency,”
Finance Minister Tendai Biti
said.
Harare’s foreign debt – a whopping US$6 billion plus interest of
which
US$1.3 billion is owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World
Bank
(WB) and the ADB – is unsustainably high for a cash-strapped government
that
is living from hand to mouth and is in need of more external funding to
finance reconstruction of the country’s collapsed economy.
Addressing
journalists following his meeting with ADB vice president
Aloysius Uche Ordu
-- who advised Zimbabwe to apply to be declared a Highly
Indebted Poor
Country -- Biti said government was hard pressed to find a
workable solution
to the debt problem.
“We are hard pressed to find an option and what ADB
is offering is the only
solution. With the current debt position we have
right now, we are
forecasted to grow by 4-6 percent in the current state but
without this huge
debt we can achieve growth levels of 15 percent. We are
poor that’s why we
are currently earning US$100.”
Addressing the same
press conference ADB’s Ordu said Zimbabwe needed to
declare itself as a poor
state among other conditions set by the IMF and WB
to ensure that no poor
country faces a debt burden it cannot manage.
“The key thing is
commitment to embark on the path, by end of 2010 or the
1st quarter of 2011
Zimbabwe should be in a position to clear its debt to
the IMF, ADB and the
World Bank. Zimbabwe’s declaration is a very important
part of the process,”
Ordu said.
He said Zimbabwe’s debt was too large and having a negative
effect on the
country’s economic growth.
"Zimbabwe debt is too huge
and having debt constraints on the fiscus,” said
Ordu.
He said the
ADB had agreed with the Zimbabwe government on the need to
re-engage the
international community over the country’s funding
requirements.
“We
have agreed on the path on how to deal with the debt issue the fastest
way
possible and this can only be done through repayment of urgent debt
arrears
and this will open the way to the Paris Club. Zimbabwe’s entering
into the
IMF fund will be very very important,” Ordu said.
Zimbabwe, once one of
Africa’s most vibrant economies, is said to owe US$138
million to the IMF,
$676 million to the World Bank and $438 million the ADB,
among other
lenders.
However, the power-sharing government of President Robert Mugabe
and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says it needs more loans – US$10
billion in total
to revive the economy and generate revenue before it is
able to repay what
it owes. – ZimOnline
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, January 19, 2010 -
Zimbabwe will seek highly indebted poor country
status to have its $6
billion international debt cancelled to help spur
economic growth, Finance
Minister Tendai Biti said on Monday.
Zimbabwe's unity government,
formed last year by bitter foes President
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai to end an economic
crisis, has failed to attract
much-needed foreign aid, partly due to huge
debts.
Zimbabwe has
enlisted the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to
draft a debt
relief plan that would unlock access to international finance,
seen as
crucial to revive the economy after a decade of decline.
"There is a huge
opportunity cost Zimbabwe is suffering as a result of the
stifling debt.
Without the debt overhang we would be growing by 15 percent
annually," Biti
told reporters in Harare after meeting a visiting team of
senior AfDB
officials.
Biti said while there were divergent views on the debt
clearance strategy,
seeking HIPC status -- which would require sweeping
reforms and setting firm
performance targets -- was the best
option.
"There is no consensus position yet in Cabinet, but I've said
give me an
alternative that allows us to get this debt serviced without
prejudicing our
meagre resources," Biti said, adding that the government
would make a "bold"
decision on the matter within the first quarter of
2010.
PROGRESS
Visiting AfDB vice president for operations,
Aloysius Ordu said although
Zimbabwe's power-sharing government had made
progress, there would be no
full co-operation until Zimbabwe resolved the
debt issue.
Ordu said the HIPC scheme was Zimbabwe's best chance of
clearing its debt
and re-engaging with multilateral finance
institutions.
"For Zimbabwe, HIPC will be very important. Unless you
clear existing debt,
you cannot access new money. Many African countries
have gone through this
route and other options (of debt servicing) are very
expensive," he said.
"The Zimbabwe government has asked AfDB to assist
with this process of
re-engaging multilateral finance
institutions."
To qualify for HIPC status, a country's debt has to be
considered to be
beyond its ability to repay from its own resources. The
country is also
expected to commit to sound economic management and
institute broad reforms.
Once one of Africa's most promising economies,
Zimbabwe has seen a sharp
economic decline, with the IMF saying per capita
GDP fell from $519 in 2000
to $268 in 2008. In 1990, per capita GDP was
around $900.
An estimated 83 percent of the population lived on less than
$2 a day in
2005, with the situation worsening considerably by 2008 when
inflation
reached about 500 billion percent.
Up to 3 million
Zimbabweans have fled the crisis, mostly to become economic
refugees in
neighbouring South Africa. Reuters
http://www1.voanews.com
Mr. Mugabe
invited international mining companies to invest in Zimbabwean
resource
extraction - but cautioned that they would have to do so with black
indigenous Zimbabwean partners
Ntungamili Nkomo & Thomas
Chiripasi | Washington/Harare 18 January 2010
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe, speaking Monday at the burial of a hero
of the 1970s
liberation struggle, urged Zimbabweans to unite and work
together for
national development and prosperity.
The president was delivering a
eulogy at the Heroes Acre burial of
liberation participant Ntombiyelanga
Takawira. Such ceremonies are often the
occasion for politically significant
declarations by Mr. Mugabe.
Also attending the ceremony was Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the
former opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party, and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara, head of a rival
MDC formation.
Mr. Mugabe invited international mining companies to
invest in Zimbabwean
resource extraction - but cautioned that they would
have to do so with black
indigenous Zimbabwean partners, this an apparent
brushback to those in the
unity government who would ease restrictions on
foreign stakeholdings.
Resorting to his trademark anti-Western rhetoric,
Mr. Mugabe accused former
colonial power Britain and the United States of
meddling in Zimbabwe's
internal affairs, rallying Zimbabweans to resist
foreign domination.
Political analyst John Makumbe of the University of
Zimbabwe told VOA Studio
7 reporter Ntungamili Nkomo that Mr. Mugabe's call
for unity and peace was
commendable, but questioned the political and
economic wisdom of the
president's continued anti-Western
declarations.
Meanwhile, intra-governmental negotiations to resolve
so-called outstanding
issues troubling the power-sharing government in
Harare, scheduled to pick
up on Sunday, failed to take place. Political
sources said one of the
negotiators for Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was out
of the country.
Officials from both MDC formations told VOA they were
growing impatient with
the prolonged negotiation process aimed at resolving
issues remaining from
the February 2009 formation of the government or which
have arisen since
then. Southern African leaders have also signaled
impatience.
In Harare High Court, meanwhile, the the trial of MDC senator
Roy Bennett on
treason charges continued. Attorney General Johannes Tomana,
who has taken
personal charge of the prosecution, stunned the court in
saying that the
army and intelligence services should work with police in
criminal
investigations, reported VOA Studio 7 correspondent Thomas
Chiripasi.
Elsewhere, Harare police arrested freelance news photographer
Shadreck
Andrison Manyere as he was filming a demonstration by the activist
group
Women of Zimbabwe Arise, media sources said. Two unidentified women
were
also arrested in the protest in central Harare called by the activist
group
to protest unaffordable school fees and low teacher
salaries.
Human rights lawyer Dzimbabwe Chimga, counsel for Manyere, said
no charges
have been lodged against the photojournalist. He said the officer
in charge
at Harare Central Police Station had ordered Manyere to be
released.
A WOZA statement later said Manyere had been
released.
Manyere's arrest follows the departure from Zimbabwe on Friday
of journalist
Stanley Kwenda, who reportedly fled after receiving
threatening phone calls
from suspected agents of the Central Intelligence
Organization.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa condemned Manyere's
arrest and the
alleged threats against Kwenda. It said the apparent
crackdown threatened
media freedom, and urged the unity government to
respect media rights.
http://www1.voanews.com
Water Resources Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo said water
infrastructure cannot
be overhauled without assistance from donors, who are
waiting for progress
on resolving a range of issues troubling the unity
government
Patience Rusere | Washington 18 January
2010
Zimbabwe will continue to face problems in providing its
population with
safe drinking water, Water Resources Minister Sam Sipepa
Nkomo warned
Monday, as the country needs more than five billion dollars to
overhaul
infrastructure.
Nkomo was responding to reports that a
number of Zimbabwean cities continue
to have difficulty providing water
despite promises by the unity government
in power since February 2009 that
it would deal with the problem.
Some parts of Harare, the capital, still
have no water. Residents of Gweru
and Mutare have had no water for weeks. In
Bulawayo problems are also
severe.
Contaminated water supplies were a
major factor in the cholera epidemic that
claimed more than 4,200 lives from
late 2008 through mid-2009.
Nkomo told VOA Studio 7 reporter Patience
Rusere that his ministry was not
allocated money for infrastructure upgrades
in the 2010 budget so repairs
will depend on help from donors awaiting
progress on the political front.
http://www1.voanews.com
Senior ZANU-PF officials in Mashonaland West province
questioned last week
by police in connection with the alleged diversion of
fertilizer from the
state-operated Grain Marketing Board in Chinhoyi to the
black market
Jonga Kandemiiri | Washington 18 January 2010
The
Mashonaland West provincial branch of Zimbabwe's former ruling ZANU-PF
party
remained in turmoil this week following the dismissal of the
provincial
chairman, John Mafa, and two other local officials amid police
investigations into the diversion of fertilizer to the local black
market.
The party's provincial coordinating committee said a
no-confidence vote was
passed on Mafa, provincial vice chairman Frank
Ndambakuwa and local party
lands secretary Temba Mliswa for alleged
maladministration.
Mafa was replaced as chairman by Robert Sikanyika, and
the deputy chairman
slot was filled by Reuben Marumahoko, ZANU-PF sources
said.
But Mafa told VOA that the meeting that ousted them was convened
illegally
and in violation of the party constitution, so all three remain in
place.
VOA reported last week that Mafa had been questioned by police in
connection
with the alleged diversion of fertilizer from the state-operated
Grain
Marketing Board in Chinhoyi, capital of Mashonaland West
province.
Dismissed ZANU-PF provincial lands secretary Mliswa told VOA
reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri that he was being victimized because of a report
on land use
which had exposed top party officials including Ignatius Chombo,
minister of
local government, and Webster Shamu, minister of information,
who owned
multiple farms seized under the country's land redistribution
program.
Neither Chombo and Shamu could be reached for comment.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
19/01/2010
00:00:00
ZIMBABWE's prisoners are now moving around naked due to an acute
shortage of
prison garb while most prison infrastructure around the country
is said to
be in a serious state of disrepair.
The latest report by
parliament's justice committee exposes the sorry state
of affairs in the
country's underfunded prison service with water and power
supplies now being
frequently cut off over to unpaid bills totalling US$3
million.
The
money is owed to the country's water and electricity utilities, ZESA and
Zinwa.
"The committee learnt that uniforms for both inmates and
officers have never
been adequate (but) the situation was even worse for
inmates who exchange
uniforms for their court appearances thereby exposing
themselves to
infectious diseases and (the committee also discovered) that
most prisoners
were moving around naked," the report said.
The
bedding situation is also said to be particularly bad with prisoners
either
going without blankets or resorting to sharing the one or two
available
which are usually torn and unwashed.
The report also says prisons
infrastructure is now in an advanced state of
disrepair adding this posed a
serious security threat.
"The infrastructure (is now) a threat to life
and security as most of the
prisons were constructed in the early 1900s,
thus the infrastructure is in
an advanced state of disrepair.
"In
addition, it was brought to the attention of the committee that out of
22
steam pots at Chikurubi, only 2 are working hence there is an urgent need
to
modernize the kitchens and replacement of all the cooking and eating
utensils as currently prisoners are using lunch boxes brought in by their
relatives."
The report added that the ZPS is in urgent need of US$24
million to procure
vehicles and fuel.
Again, while the ZPS was
allocated farms under the country's land reform
programme, the service does
not have the implements or inputs to utilize the
land.
http://www.iol.co.za
January 19 2010 at 06:12PM
Harare -
Zimbabwe's tourism ministry will seek treasury approval for a
$70-million
(about R520-million) plan to cash in on neighbouring South
Africa's hosting
of the 2010 World Cup, minister Walter Mzembi said on
Tuesday.
"We
have received a budget proposal of $70-million from various ministries
and
we have asked them to come up with projects that can be completed around
March," Mzembi said.
Five million dollars is earmarked for "an
extensive media campaign to
advertise our tourist facilities to the outside
world" and one million
dollars to set up fun parks for visitors.
"We
want to create an atmosphere away from the match venues to connect the
people to the event," said Mzembi.
Two million will go toward
training police officers, branding and transport.
Other projects include
improving water and power supplies, upgrading health
and telecommunication
services and securing computers for the immigration
department to avoid
congestion at border posts.
"We want to rehabilitate our roads to ensure
that potholes are filled and
also upgrade our rail transport network,"
Mzembi said.
"We are also going to set aside funds for hosting teams that
might want to
stay in Zimbabwe during the tournament. The money will cover
the transport
and security for the teams."
Government and private
companies in Zimbabwe are working on various projects
to cash in on the
hosting of the World Cup by South Africa.
Most of the projects have been
hampered by lack of money as the country is
battling to recover from a
nearly decade-long economic crisis.
Mzembi said Zimbabwe had received
various enquiries from national teams
seeking to camp in the country during
the tournament which kicks off in
Johannesburg on June 11. - Sapa-AFP
http://www.sabcnews.com
January 19 2010 ,
2:04:00
Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana says he intends inviting his
Zimbabwean
counterpart to South Africa to discuss the issue of displaced
foreigners in
De Doorns in the Boland. Hundreds of Zimbabweans were forced
to flee from
the area after locals accused them of stealing their jobs by
accepting lower
wages.
Mdladlana also says the question of
Zimbabweans coming to South Africa
undocumented poses a security risk.
"Besides the fact that they have these
economic problems because even if you
want to give them their Unemployment
Insurance Fund, how would you say that
South Africans should bring their
identity documents in order to make a
claim, then what must Zimbabweans
bring to make a claim if they have no form
of documentation? That's a
government issue."
He says he has met
leaders of the refugee rights group, PASSOP, in Cape
Town. The group wants
government to investigate claims that politicians are
involved in last
year's attacks on foreigners in the area.
Mdladlana has reiterated calls
for the Zimbabwean government to quickly
implement its unity government
agreement. The minister says the sooner the
agreement is implemented the
better.
http://tobaccoreporter.com/
Jan 19, 2010-The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA)
has cast doubts on the
state of the tobacco industry's recovery, according
to a story in the
Financial Gazette.
It has warned that government
farm-eviction threats against one third of its
150 members could spell
disaster.
The ZTA president, Kevin Cooke, was quoted as saying that the
effects of
this 'chaos' and mounting threats on a sector that produces about
10 per
cent of the world's flue cured tobacco exports would not only dampen
farmers' spirits but severely undermine the recovery of Zimbabwe's
agro-based economy.
Of ZTA's 150 commercial members, 50 were under
threat at the moment; so one
third of the major tobacco farmers could be off
the land before this season's
crop was reaped, said Cooke, writing in the
2009 fourth quarter edition of
Zimbabwe Tobacco Today.
He said
realisation of the 65 million kg that farmers were expecting to
harvest this
season would heavily depend on confidence building measures by
the
government to enable the troubled industry to get on with
production.
'Give us all the opportunity to go forward and this [country]
will, in short
order, once again, be the breadbasket of Africa.
If
however, we continue to flounder with no title to land and no positive
way
forward, we simply slide into obscurity.'
http://www.mg.co.za
MICHAEL HAMLYN Jan 19 2010
09:54
Some Zimbabwean war veterans are said to be spreading their
baleful
influence over the rhino population of the country, by turning
poacher and
feeding them poisoned cabbages near water holes in a game
reserve in the
Chiredzi district.
According to the Simply Green
website, the veterans are working as poaching
agents for South Africa-based
rhino-horn dealers. When the animals come for
water, they will also eat the
cabbages. The war veterans allegedly then
track the rhinos until they die,
then take off the horns.
But the poachers have not stopped there. They
have also poisoned water
sources, which is killing cattle.
The
website quotes Nelson Maponga, a community spokesperson, as saying: "The
biggest problem is that our cattle also drink from the same sources and are
also eating the same cabbages and dying. They are even poisoning some small
dams around this area with the hope that rhinos will drink from them, which
has caused serious environmental problems in this area."
In addition
to poisoning rhinos and cattle, Maponga reported that the war
veterans have
indiscriminately cut down trees to sell firewood, which has
destroyed the
surrounding wildlife habitat.
Simply Green said that Zimbabwe and South
Africa form the epicentre of the
rhino-poaching crisis, which is poised to
undermine decades of conservation
success.
"The resurgence of mass
rhino killings is driven by the deadly combination
of demand for rhino horn
and rising incomes in Asia, mostly China, and
increasingly, Vietnam," the
article said. .
"Unfortunate cultural superstitions claim that rhino horn
is a remedy for
common ailments such as pain and fever, although extensive
scientific
testing has confirmed that rhino horn actually contains no
medicinal
properties." -- I-Net Bridge
http://www.zimdiaspora.com
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
By
Editor
GOKWE - An MDC activist was on Christmas Day beaten and killed by
members of
the Zimbabwean police in Gokwe-Nembudziya, in what has attracted
condemnation of Zanu PF by the former opposition party's founding
activists.
Eye-witness to the killing, which is said to have happened
before the
watching eyes of a helpless public, early this week, told
ZimDiaspora that
Peter Magombedza (35), a well-known MDC activist, was
clubbed to death in
broad daylight by sixpolice officers wielding AK 47 guns
and baton sticks.
Two of the police officers have since been identified
as Zvinavashe and
Nzori, both believed to be Sergeants and based at
Nembudziya police station.
According to the eye-witnesses, Magombedza was
drinking beer at a bottle
store at Ward 23 in Tsungai, Gokwe-Nembudziya,
when two boys began to fight
near his vehicle - a T35 pick-up truck that was
parked outside.
"Those boys, aged between 15 and 16 and both of them
green bombers (members
of the notorious Zanu PF youth militia), were
throwing empty bottles at each
other, ducking for cover on either side of
the truck," said one of the
witnesses.
"When he tried to stop them,
one of the boys attacked him and an angry
Magombedza held him by his shirt
collar and began to shove him against the
vehicle. Six armed police
officers, who had been deployed in the area to
maintain peace, immediately
descended on him, accusing him of perpetrating
MDC violence against Zanu PF
supporters in the area.
"They began to beat him their baton sticks and
one of the blows knocked him
down. Instead of them stopping after this, the
police officers, some of them
already drunk, beat him with their rifle buts
until he lost consciousness."
Magombedza died on the spot, but had not
yet been buried at the time of
going to print, as senior ZRP officers in the
area are refusing him a post
mortem, which will expose their junior
officers.
Doctor Ncube, deputy chairman of the MDC Veteran Activists
Association (MDC
VAA), who also confirmed receiving reports of the murder,
described the
police action as an indication that there is still no rule of
law in
Zimbabwe despite the formation of the national unity
government.
"If people can still be killed by the police just because
they are MDC, then
we have not made any ground with this GNU," said
Ncube.
"It shows that the security forces still belong to Zanu PF and
will never
recognize the MDC as a partner in the government of national
unity. At this
stage, there should be no political beatings, be they against
Zanu PF or the
MDC because we have said that we are burying our hatchet and
working
together to rebuild our country.
"The parties to the
government should also work hard to ensure that a
situation where members of
the armed forces can kill people with impunity on
political lines ends
immediately because we are not going anywhere with it.
It just shows that
some people in power still do not respect, let alone
support the GNU."
http://www.apanews.net/
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) The head of a British-based company locked
in a legal
battle with the Zimbabwean government over rights to the
controversial
Marange diamond fields has slammed "fake patriots" who it said
were
plundering Zimbabwe’s resources for the benefit of a "few corrupt,
thieving
elites”.
African Consolidated Resources (ACR) chief
executive Andrew Cranswick said
Tuesday contrary to deliberate
misinformation by the state media, his
company was a Zimbabwean-founded and
run by Zimbabweans.
Reacting to assertions that the ACR was foreign-owned
and therefore had no
right to claim ownership of the Marange diamonds,
Cranswick criticised
“false patriots” whom he said wanted to benefit from
plunder of the country’s
resources.
“Patriots respect the rule of
law. Patriots want real Zimbabweans to
succeed, not a few corrupt, thieving
elites,” Cranswick said.
He noted that real patriots understood that
“capitalist companies and
capitalist individuals (i.e. all of us who build
and create versus steal and
destroy) are not cows to be milked, not
predatory leopards to be shot but
the oxen who pull the heavy
load”.
ACR owns the rights to mine the Marange diamond field – also known
as
Chiadzwa – but it has been replaced on the property by rival companies
linked to the government and by the security forces.
The
British-based mining company early this month warned Interpol that it
believed that the Zimbabwean government was preparing to sell stolen
diamonds, and wanted diamond buyers in the United States and Europe to be
prosecuted for receiving stolen property if they buy the Zimbabwean
stones.
The Zimbabwean High Court has ruled that ACR owns the mining
rights
legitimately and, as a result, the company believes that any diamond
sales
from Marange amount to trading in stolen goods.
The move by ACR
prompted the Harare authorities to suspend the January 6
sale of 300,000
carats from the Marange fields.
Cranswick said ACR was a transparent,
publicly-listed company which has
successfully brought more direct foreign
investment to Zimbabwe than any
other company during the past five
"sanction" years.
He revealed that ACR had offered to enter into a 50-50
joint venture with
the Zimbabwean government and the local
community.
South Africa’s Core Mining and Grandwell Holdings, operating
as Canadile
Mines and Mbada Investments, respectively, have entered into a
joint venture
with the state-run Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation to
extract
diamonds at the claim owned by ACR.
JN/nm/APA
2010-01-19
http://www.swradioafrica.com
NCA PRESS
STATEMENT
19/01/2010
Constitution-making process- a cash cow
project for government officials and
some civic groups.
The ongoing
government led constitutional process is not meant to achieve a
new
constitution for the people of Zimbabwe as shown by the attitude of some
officials leading this process. It is now beyond reasonable doubt that the
reason why the government is adamant to continue with this process is the
selfish motive of generating unjustifiable money through allowances and
other avenues related to the process.
The NCA is shocked to realize
that members of parliament are renting their
vehicles for use in this
dubious constitution making process. One of the
co-chairpersons of the
controversial parliamentary select committee was
quoted in the state and
private media thanking the MPs for "offering their
vehicles to be used in
the constitutional outreach programme". It has
emerged that MP's renting out
their vehicles will be paid amounts ranging
from US250 to US350 per day.
This means that an average of $20 000 will be
used for each vehicle. This
does not make sense as the government can
actually purchase at least 3
vehicles rather than hiring for such an
exorbitant cost.
It is
therefore very hypocritical for Hon. Mangwana and Hon. Mwonzora to
pretend
that vehicles offered by the MPs are going to be used free of
charge. It is
shocking that vehicles that were bought by tax payers' money
are now being
rented to government by some mercenaries whose agenda is to
make money
instead of representing interests of their respective
constituencies. As
NCA, we view the move by the members of parliament as a
clear testimony that
government officials are using this dubious
constitutional reform process as
a platform to raise money for personal
survival.
It is equally
disappointing to realize that there are some civic leaders and
civic
organizations that are assisting government to conduct the so called
"public
consultations". As civic society, we have always insisted that we
will only
support a constitution making process that is led by an
independent
commission representative of various sectors of our community.
As NCA we are
aware that the civic groups participating in this process are
doing so to
please some funding partners who gave them funds to participate
in a
constitution making process that is contrary to their principles and
values.
It is discouraging to realize that some respected officials and
organizations in civic society can betray the masses of Zimbabwe because of
their love for pieces of gold and silver.
As NCA we believe that no
government should lead the process of constitution
making. For Zimbabwe to
realize a democratic, people-driven constitution,
there is need for
government officials and some civic society elements to
stop viewing the
constitution making process as a money spinning project
meant to satisfy
personal egos. Instead of the government wasting donor
funds on a
constitution which will eventually be rejected by Zimbabweans,
government
must consider abandoning this controversial process and use funds
to improve
the people's livelihoods and the country's service delivery
system.
Issued By
Madock Chivasa
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Mutumwa Mawere Tuesday 19 January
2010
OPINION: The world's first independent black republic, Haiti,
was struck at
4:53pm local time or 21:53 UTC on January 12 2010, by a
magnitude-7.0
earthquake January 12, 2010, at 21:53 UTC.
The
earthquake, the most severe in 200 years, exposed more about our African
heritage than the visible damage to human and physical infrastructure that
we have seen.
Haiti's geography in the Western Hemisphere may be
misleading as the values,
beliefs and principles that inform its approach to
nation building may not
be any different from the majority of African
states.
We have seen the global response to the calamity. The nature and
source of
the response is instructive.
At a time when the viability
of the global capitalist system is in question,
we see the major players in
the humanitarian and philanthropic spheres
originating from the
West.
Many developing countries would want to look at the East for
salvation but
regrettably the face of help that has dominated our global
airwaves is from
the West, suggesting that most of the complex challenges
caused by nature
will still require Western leadership notwithstanding the
challenges that
confront capitalism as we know it.
The African brand
is on trial in Haiti and yet the response from Africa is
largely missing in
action with the exception of South Africa.
The death toll is estimated at
more than 200 000. As we observe the extent
of the damage to property we
cannot help but come to the conclusion that the
severity of the impact on
human and physical assets would have been
mitigated by professional design
and construction.
But who are we as Africans to say this when we know
that the majority of our
structures would not stand the test of
nature.
What is evident is that our pain calls for a global response
expose the fact
that we have no coherent plans to mitigate not only the
dangers inherent in
nature but more importantly the dangers posed by our own
inaction and lack
of planning.
Without the generosity of the very
people we ridicule in our daily
discourses, do we ever pause to ask the
question about our own lack of
response and organisation to the situation
that we are witnessing in Haiti?
The capital city was devastated and so
was the presidential palace which was
badly damaged, with the second floor
entirely collapsing onto the first
floor. The Haitan Parliament building
and the National Cathedral were not
spared.
On December 6 1492,
Haiti's native Arawaks Indians fell victim to Spanish
rule thanks to
Christopher Columbus, the explorer. In 1697, the control of
Haiti shifted to
the French and the conversion of the island into a
sugarcane producer
underpinned by slave labour began.
It took an insurrection led by
Pierre-Dominique Toussaint l'Ouverture of the
480 000 slave population in
1791 for the first declaration of independence
in 1801.
However,
unlike the declaration of independence in the US, the independence
of former
slaves became elusive if not a mirage.
Although Napoléon Bonaparte
suppressed the independence movement, it
eventually triumphed in 1804 under
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who gave the new
nation the Arawak name Haiti
thereby becoming the world's first independent
black republic.
As the
first child of Africans' quest for independence, a lot was expected
and
regrettably in 2010 we discover that not much progress has been made in
reducing the frontiers of poverty.
It remains the poorest country in
the Western Hemisphere and its experience
with independence no different
from the experience of many of the African
states.
Haiti has been
plagued by leadership challenges at the political level. This
is not unique
to Haiti as many African states have and continue to endure a
similar
civilisation.
Is there any solution to our plight? How should we respond
to this
catastrophe? Can it happen again?
As Africans, we need to
pause and think seriously about the kind of
civilisation we want to be part
of. It would be naive to sloganeer in the
face of what can and should be
avoidable.
We have yet to see ourselves respond to the calamity in Haiti.
Many of us
are spectators of history and would like to surrender to a
position where we
can let history define us and not shape it.
We are
alive to see the dangers posed by a lack of investment and the
absence of
the rule of law and more importantly what can happen if an
institutional
framework that is needed to underpin a civilisation that
respect the rule of
law is absent.
As members of Africa Heritage Society www.africa-heritage.com I feel that my
heritage is on trial and God has exposed what can happen to human life if
the minimum standards needed for a functioning system are not in
place.
We need to look at ourselves and find it within us to be the
change that we
want to see.
Nature has exposed that the foundation on
which the Haitian model was built
was wrong and we do not need an earthquake
in Africa to demonstrate that we
have many parts of Africa where life means
nothing more than it does in
Haiti.
We need to respond to the Haitian
disaster not because we can make much
difference but because we also are
part of the story. The victims look like
the majority of the people we call
our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers,
uncles, nephews and
nieces.
How best can we respond? We know that it will happen again unless
there is
fundamental change in how Haiti is structured and governed. We can
respond
firstly in cash and in kind.
This we can do by collecting
from those who feel they are part of the
solution. Secondly, we can help by
demonstrating that even in Africa change
is welcome and desirable.
We
also must look at what can happen if Africa's eggs and resources are in
the
hands of the East.
If Africa, the home of 1 billion people can point the
way, Haiti can follow.
Haiti is our most senior brand ambassador and the
results of what awaits
Africa if serious introspection is not done are
obvious to all.
Countless Africans die every day as a result of manmade
disasters and less
because of nature.
If we change, perhaps nature
can be kind to us because we would have built
our own strategic defence
mechanisms.
We all have a part to play and let us reflect on what we want
to be
remembered for especially at this defining hour in our long journey to
a new
destination where the brand is at its best when calamity hits
unexpectedly. - ZimOnline
It never ceases to amaze me and
other thinking people like me in Zimbabwe,
why all reports regarding the SA
contingent being here, are here to oversee
negotiations between the three
parties of the GNU and whose signatures are
on the GPA.
What
negotiations?
Its all so simple really.
The three leaders are
instructed to "sit down". No respect is to be shown to
any of them.
The
GPA is then opened at the relevent signed page.
All three leaders are asked
if the signatures contained thereon belong to
them.
If all agree that
they are, they are then told, in no uncertain terms, to
comply with the all
the terms of the agreement.
They are also told, in no uncertain terms, and
very bluntly, that failure to
comply will result in the borders being closed
and full sanctions - not just
the targeted sanctions - will be
applied.
They should be told that none of the three or their respective
parties will
have the support of SADC or the AU.
Once they, each and
every one of them, realize that the time for delaying
and "negotiating"
further concessions is over, maybe we, the ordinary people
of Zimbabwe, will
be able to look forward to a happy, peacefull and
prosperous future, where
we can all work together for the betterment of the
country and all its
people
Am I correct in saying Robert Mugabe is the son of a settler
to Zimbabwe. His father, Gabriel, was I believe from Malawi.
Recently it is quoted Robert Mugabe said “a settler or the
off spring of a settler could not own farm land in Zimbabwe”
Do you have an thoughts on that?
Regards
J