http://www.herald.co.zw
Saturday, 26 January 2013 00:00
Farirai
Machivenyika Senior Reporter
THE Cabinet committee on the new
Constitution yesterday adopted the revised
draft following amendments
proposed by the principals. The document will now
be presented to the full
Copac committee for adoption on Tuesday.
Copac co-chairperson Cde Paul
Mangwana yesterday confirmed the adoption of
the new draft.
“The
committee met today and adopted the draft. It will now be presented to
the
Constitutional Parliament Select Committee on Tuesday for adoption,”
said
Cde Mangwana.
“The next major step afterwards will be its presentation to
Parliament.”
His counterpart Mr Douglas Mwonzora concurred saying the draft
constitution
would be presented to Parliament when it resumes sitting next
month.
“We met today with the drafters and adopted the draft. The
document will be
presented to Copac and then to Parliament when it resumes
sitting.
“We are likely to move the motion for the adoption of the draft
on February
8 and then debate will commence the following day,” Mr Mwonzora
said.
The Copac co-chairpersons on Thursday said publicity campaigns to
inform the
public on the provisions of the draft constitution would also
start next
week.
This is expected to ensure that Zimbabweans
appreciate the provisions of the
proposed supreme law.
The Global
Political Agreement principals last week brought to an end a
six-month
deadlock between partners in the inclusive Government over some
provisions
in the draft constitution.
The deadlock came after Zanu-PF rejected the
draft constitution released by
Copac in July.
Zanu-PF said the draft did
not correspond with views gathered from the
generality of Zimbabweans during
the outreach programme.
The impasse led to the setting up of the Cabinet
committee made up of the
Copac co-chairpersons and negotiators to the Global
Political Agreement.
Zanu-PF Politburo has already endorsed the agreement
reached by the
principals and pledged to campaign for the draft
constitution’s adoption at
the referendum.
The referendum for the
constitution’s adoption will follow the debate in
Parliament.
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Blessing Zulu, Sithandekile
Mhlanga
25.01.2013
WASHINGTON — Zimbabwe's parliament is now set to
discuss the constitutional
draft in the second week of February when the
Lower House resumes sitting.
Last week, the country's rival political
parties agreed on a final draft of
a constitution that will be put to a
referendum ahead of crucial elections
expected this year.
On Friday,
the three drafters of the long awaited constitution were given
the nod by
Constitution Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) to produce the final
draft.
The three COPAC drafters are Moses Chinhengo, a former High
Court judge,
Priscilla Madzonga, a senior legal practitioner and former
drafter in the
Attorney-General’s office, and Brian Crozier, a former
director of legal
drafting in the Attorney-General’s office.
The
principals will then announce the date for the referendum after
receiving
the final draft next week.
President Robert Mugabe is currently in
Ethiopia where he is attending the
African Union summit. Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai is now back in Harare
after attending the World Economic
Forum meeting in Davos, Switerland.
COPAC co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora of
the MDC-T told VOA that they are ready
to table the draft before
parliment.
Zanu-PF co-chairman, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana of Zanu-PF
concurred saying he
expects the nation to vote for the
referendum.
Edward Mkhosi, select committee co-chairman of the MDC
formation of Industry
Minister Welshman Ncube, said Constitutional Affairs
Minister Eric Matinenga
will release a statement on Saturday confirming the
conclusion of the draft
constitution.
Mkhosi said the draft reflects
views collected from people nationwide during
the outreach
phase.
President Robert Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai were forced into a
power-sharing
government in 2009 after the deadly and disputed poll held the
previous
year. The unity government though has been largely dysfunctional
due to
policy discord.
Mr. Mugabe, who is 88 and has ruled Zimbabwe
since independence in 1980, has
insisted on elections being held in March
while Mr. Tsvangirai wanted
reforms first to allow for fair and
violence-free polls.
Mr Tsvangirai, 60, pulled out of a presidential
run-off election in 2008,
citing the killing of about 300 supporters. The
Southern African Development
Community and the African Union are gurantors
of the Global Political
Agreement that led to the formation of the coalition
government.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Saturday, 26 January 2013
00:00
Michael Chideme Senior Reporter
AN anti-tank landmine is
believed to have caused the Chitungwiza blast that
killed five people on
Monday. Sources close to the investigations revealed
that the “the nature of
the damage was consistent with a landmine”.
Burial papers for the victims
indicated “suspected bomb” as the cause of the
death.
However, police
spokesperson Asst Comm Charity Charamba said investigations
were
continuing.
“We are still investigating. We cannot confirm it was a landmine
as of now.
We want to exhaust all leads,” she said.
She said no
arrests had been made yet.
Landmines do not end with the personal, physical,
or even mental trauma of
an individual. They inflict societal trauma,
through infrastructure and
economic damage.
Sources close to
investigations believe the other two dead were a soldier
and a police
detective.
The two are believed to have brought the deadly weapon to Sekuru
Shumba —
Speakmore Mandere — the traditional healer who also perished in the
blast.
It is believed they wanted to extract red mercury, which has an
attractive
market in Johannesburg.
According to online sources, red
mercury is a 19th-century term for
protiodide or iodide of mercury.
It
was commonly recommended for use as an anti-syphilitic as late as
1913.
Today, it is used in some countries for skin lightening, causing
some cases
of nephritic syndrome. Red mercuric iodide is a poisonous,
scarlet-red,
odourless, tasteless powder that is insoluble in
water.
According to some world media reports red mercury sells for as high as
US$1,8 million per kilogramme.
Remains of the five victims of the
explosion were collected for burial
yesterday.
First to collect the
remains were the Mandere family from Centenary,
followed by the Chimina
family whose daughter, seven-month-old Kelly, also
died. She was buried
yesterday at the Unit L cemetery.
The remains of commuter omnibus operator
Clever Kamudzeya were expected to
be collected late afternoon.
Burial
is scheduled for today in Chihota.
Relatives of one of the victims, Aleck
Shamu, were also making arrangements
to collect his body while the remains
of the fifth victim were still to be
identified.
He would be buried
in Masvingo.
A member of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers
Association, Mr
Lovemore Muparadzi, said the blast was most likely the
result of a failed
attempt to address problems associated with an enrichment
medicine (muti)
processed using a rare animal called sandawana, which looks
like a mouse.
“That explosion was not caused by lightning or goblins. It
most likely
happened because of a sandawana,” he said.
He said the
practice was very dangerous such that it was not recommended to
be done in a
house.
He said the practice is usually discharged in the bush.
Zinatha
spokesman George Kandiyero concurred with Muparadzi.
“Buying such muti can be
dangerous because people tend not to get the full
manual on how it is used.
And if you do not get full details, it can
backfire,” he said.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Friday, 25 January 2013 11:50
HARARE - The Office of
the Commissioner on Human Rights (OCHR) in Geneva,
Switzerland has slammed
escalating repression of human rights defenders in
Zimbabwe ahead of
elections.
OCHR spokesperson, Rupert Colville, said the commission noted
with concern
the increase in arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment
of human
rights activists and innocent citizens.
“We condemn recent
attacks against human rights defenders in Zimbabwe,
including arbitrary
arrests, intimidation and harassment,” OCHR said.
It cited the arrest of
Okay Machisa, the director of Zimbabwe Human Rights
Association (ZimRights)
and chairperson of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on
January 14 for allegedly
publishing false statements prejudicial to the
State, fraud and forgery
after allegedly conducting illegal voter
registration.
Machisa handed
himself to the police accompanied by his lawyer, and remains
in
detention.
“In a previous incident, ZimRights education programmes
manager, Leo
Chamahwinya, and ZimRights local chapter chairperson, Dorcas
Shereni, were
arrested by the police on December 13, 2012. They were both
denied bail by
the High Court and remain in detention.
“We are
concerned about the crackdown on non-governmental organisations and
dissenting voices seen as critical of Robert Mugabe’s rule and apparently
politically-motivated prosecutions, ahead of the elections which are
expected to take place later this year.”
The OCHR report was issued
at a time when the Zanu PF Masvingo provincial
governor, Titus Maluleke on
Thursday issued fresh threats, that he would ban
civic organisations he
accuses of interfering with the electoral process
ahead of the next general
elections expected this year.
Maluleke, who banned 29 NGO’s last year
accusing them of refusing to comply
with government regulations to register,
summoned 45 local civic
organisations operating in Masvingo province and
threatened to ban them if
they interfered with the
elections.
Maluleke was accompanied by State security
agents.
However, the minister of Labour and Social Services, Paurina
Mpariwa has
said Maluleke’s threats are illegal and the NGOs should ignore
them.
The OCHR said it supports the work of the United Nations human
rights
mechanisms, such as the Human Rights Council and the core treaty
bodies set
up for monitoring State parties’ compliance with international
human rights
treaties and promote the right to
development.
Navanethem Pillay, who is the UN high commissioner for human
rights was in
Zimbabwe last year when Zanu PF’s desperate push for early
elections that
year suffered a major dent when she warned that holding the
polls before
reforms would be “suicidal”.
“Unless the parties agree
quickly on some key major reforms and there is a
distinct shift in attitude,
the next election which is due sometime in the
coming year could turn into a
repeat of the 2008 elections which resulted in
rampant politically-motivated
human rights abuses including killings,
torture, rape, beatings, arbitrary
detention, displacements and other
violations,” she said last year during
her visit.
“I believe it is essential that a satisfactory new
constitution with an
entrenched Bill of Rights is put in place soon, so that
the referendum to
confirm it and all the electoral reforms necessary for a
peaceful, free and
fair election can be carried out before people go to the
polls.”
“Realistically, this will take time, but it will be more
important to get it
right than to rush the process,” she said, adding that
the government must
give the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) more time
to update the voters’
roll and supervise the referendum on the new
constitution before holding
elections. - Staff Writer
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Friday, 25 January 2013
11:41
HARARE - The MDC led by Industry and Commerce minister
Welshman Ncube says
it will revisit the Constitution with a view to
reinstating devolution of
power if it wins this year’s elections.
The
party’s spokesperson Nhlahla Dube admitted in an interview with the
Daily
News yesterday that they gave away a lot during negotiations with Zanu
PF
particularly on devolution, hence the need to better the document.
He
said the onus was now on the electorate to vote Zanu PF out so that
through
Parliament, the constitution would be amended.
If recent opinion polls
are anything to go by, the chance of Ncube’s MDC
winning Parliament are slim
indeed, with research think-tank, Freedom House,
claiming the party will not
garner more than one percent of the vote.
“The new Constitution
represents an incremental growth in the
democratisation of Zimbabwe but
because it is a product of negotiation we
lost something as it was give and
take,” Dube said. “We will however,
certainly have to revisit the
Constitution if we win the elections
especially on issues such as devolution
where we have always demanded it.”
Dube however, pointed out that Zanu PF
had also been forced to capitulate on
some of its demands including the role
of the Attorney General on which they
had declared they would not move an
inch.
“Zanu PF had been digging in on the issue of the Attorney General’s
role but
they have given in and the office will be confined to its core
business of
legal advisor to government. That is the essence of
negotiation,” Dube said.
President Robert Mugabe met with Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, Ncube and
Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara last
week to thrash out a deal on the
country’s new Constitution after the
parliamentary committee (Copac) which
had steered the process failed to
bridge differences between the parties.
The leaders said they had come to
an agreement over various sticking issues,
adding that the final draft would
now be put together leading to a national
referendum and general elections
to choose a new government.
Zanu PF has endorsed agreements made by the
Principals on the sticky issues
that had stymied the constitution-making
process following a politburo
meeting held at the party’s headquarters
yesterday.
The amendments have since been incorporated into the draft
constitution. -
Mugove Tafirenyika
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Friday, 25 January 2013 11:36
BULAWAYO -
Bulawayo, which used to be Zimbabwe’s industrial hub just a
decade ago, is
now a “city of destitute,” the city’s mayor Thaba Moyo said.
“Currently
there has been a rapid increase in the number of homeless people
and street
children in Bulawayo and my council is very worried about this,”
he told the
Daily News.
He did not give figures.
“This is mainly being caused
by high unemployment rate since most companies
in the city have shutdown in
recent years.
“There are also squatter camps sprouting in some suburbs
and those which
have been in existence like the one in Killarney suburb are
expanding.
People cannot afford to pay rentals or to build their own houses
because
they are out of employment,” Moyo said.
Although Bulawayo
City Council has been working with some non-governmental
organisations (NGO)
to build cheaper houses for homeless people, the council
is failing to cope
because the number is increasing daily.
An estimated 20 000 workers have
lost their jobs as several companies in the
city have either closed shop,
down-sized or relocated to Harare, leaving
thousands struggling to eke out a
living.
As many as 87 firms have closed shop in the city since
2010.
Once known as “Kontuthu ziyathunqa” for the bellowing smoke over
its
industrial districts, Bulawayo at one point accounted for 75 percent of
the
country’s manufacturing output, but now it has been dubbed a “sadza
economy”,
with restaurants and flea markets accounting for most of the
city’s income
generating projects. -
Pindai Dube
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Friday, 25 January 2013 11:27
HARARE - The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (Zec) is haunted by a perception
crisis that it is
embedded in President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF, the
commission’s chief has
said.
Zec, the body charged with conducting free and fair elections, is
accused by
opposition parties and civil society organisations of tinkering
with the
2008 presidential election results to favour Zanu PF and fit the
matrix of a
run-off election.
Lovemore Sekeramayi, Zec’s chief
executive officer, said they urgently need
cash to launch a nationwide
blitz, “intensify voter registration and voter
education
simultaneously.”
“Remember these processes are continuous. We would also
like to be more
visible and address the negative perceptions about Zec,”
Sekeramayi said.
He said Zimbabwe needs about $190 million for the
referendum and general
elections this year.
Research think-tank, the
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) recently
released a report that claimed
Zec‘s secretariat remains wholly unreformed,
full of intelligence and
military agents such that it cannot be trusted to
deliver free and fair
elections.
Sekeramayi said Zec is still operating on a shoe-string budget
and hopes
that treasury will release funding in order to kick-start a
massive
awareness programme, meant to change negative
perceptions.
Sources said UNDP, which has supported various programmes,
is ready to
bankroll the election but Zanu PF hardliners are not comfortable
with
foreign funding.
“Zec has done a lot of ground work in terms of
training and capacity
building of its staff and the establishment, the
commission through the UNDP
and its partners (Danida, Denmark, SIDA Sweden)
facilitation has conducted
multiple stakeholder workshops sensitising the
various participants on the
electoral process,” Sekeramayi said.
“In
addition, UNDP facilitation has enabled Zec to acquire vehicles,
computers,
laptops, public address systems, dictaphones, TV sets, DStv
decoders, DVD
players and furniture,” said Sekeramayi.
Earlier this month, Morgan
Tsvangirai met with officials from Zec and the
Registrar of Voters’ office
seeking to fast track the funding of elections
but thus far Zec is living on
promises and donations as treasury dithers on
its earlier promises.
http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/
Fri,
Jan 25th, 2013 By Robert Herriman
With the peak malaria season in the African
nation starting in February,
Zimbabwe has already reported more than 10,000
cases of the mosquito borne
parasitic disease, malaria, according to a
Bernama report today.
National malaria program manager, Dr. Joseph
Mberikunashe said that
continuous rains in the country has led to excessive
mosquito breeding. In
Zimbabwe, the peak malaria season is from February
through April.
Public education, vector control and indoor residual
spraying programs have
been stepped up, strategies that have led to lower
malaria cases across the
country.
Zimbabwe recorded at least 328,000
cases last year, which resulted in 214
deaths.
http://www.voazimbabwe.com
Irwin
Chifera
25.01.2013
HARARE — Winners of the Auxillia Chimusoro Alumni
Awards were honored
Thursday night with American ambassador Bruce Wharton
pledging the United
States government’s more than $95 million to support
Zimbabwe’s national
HIV/AIDS response.
Ambassador Wharton said the
money will come from the U.S President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,
known as PEPFAR, to support critical health
interventions meant to prevent
more HIV infections.
Since 2005, the U.S government has invested about
$400 million in Zimbabwe
towards the country’s HIV/AIDS
response.
This year’s Auxillia Chimusoro competition was won by
AfricaAid, a local
non-government organization, which received a $5,000
grant.
The grant will support young people living with HIV or AIDS who
will produce
a musical DVD aimed at raising awareness of
HIV/AIDS.
AfricaAid director, Nicola Willis, said discussions are under
way to involve
national icons to assist young people in producing the
DVD.
Ambassador Wharton who was instrumental in launching the
Auxilllia Chimusoro
Award when he was the embassy’s public affairs officer
12 years ago, said he
was happy that the award has become a part of
Zimbabwe’s national AIDS
response.
The U.S mission launched the
Auxillia Chimusoro Award in 1989 to help
de-stigmatize HIV/AIDS and to
commemorate the legacy of Auxillia Chimusoro,
the first Zimbabwean woman to
publicly disclose her positive HIV/AIDS status
in 1989.
A
representative of the Chimusoro family commended the U.S mission, the
government of Zimbabwe and partners for honoring Auxillia.
The
HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country is now below 16 percent, the lowest
in
sub-Saharan Africa.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Saturday, 26 January 2013 00:00
Farai
Dzirutwe in ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
President Mugabe last night attended
the African Union’s Peace and Security
Council meeting here as African
leaders met to find ways of dealing with
simmering tensions between Sudan
and South Sudan as well as the armed
conflict in Mali where rebels recently
intensified attacks against
government positions.
The Head of
State and Government and Commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe
Defence Forces
attended the meeting at the ongoing 20th Ordinary Summit
together with
Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi.
Minister Mumbengegwi had
earlier attended a ministerial meeting on the same
issues.
Details of the
outcome of the meeting were not yet available at the time of
going to
press.
In her opening remarks before the meeting went into a closed
session,
African Union Commission chair, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said
although
Africa had made significant strides in addressing the peace and
security
challenges on the continent, there were still some regions which
needed
attention.
She cited Somalia, the Central African Republic,
Madagascar and
Guinea-Bissau as areas were significant progress had been
made.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma said the AU was concerned about renewed insecurity
in the
Democratic Republic of Congo but added that yesterday’s meeting was
specifically looking at the Sudan and South Sudan as well as
Mali.
She said it was important to promote good neighbourliness between
Sudan and
South Sudan who had occasionally fought over an un-dermacated
border and oil
revenue from the disputed Abyei region.
She said it
was important for the two states to follow the AU’s
internationally endorsed
roadmap towards the reduction of tensions between
them.
“In a very
welcome move underscoring relations between the AU’s Peace and
Security
Council and the United Nations’ Security Council, the UN Security
Council
endorsed the roadmap in its entirety. This was an example of total
unity of
purpose in the international community,” she said.
She thanked former
South African president Thabo Mbeki, who is leading
mediation efforts on the
Sudan crisis together with former Rwandan president
Pierre Buyoya and former
Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar, who are
also in the High Level
Implementation Panel.
South Sudan President Salva Kiir thanked the AU for
convening the forum to
discuss the situation between his country and Sudan
adding that the vision
of the two states living in peace and mutual security
was attainable.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma said AU member states were also strongly
against the rebel
offensive on the Malian government adding that the issue
was also high on
the agenda of last night’s meeting.
Meanwhile, the
full summit would officially open tomorrow morning with Heads
of State and
Government expected to tackle a number of burning issues
concerning the
continental bloc.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Friday, 25 January 2013
11:48
HARARE - Deputy Higher Education minister Lutho Tapela says he is
being
“systematically sidelined” by acting minister Ignatius Chombo and has
literally been rendered idle.
Tapela, a member of Welshman Ncube’s
MDC, says Chombo has not even bothered
to talk to him since he was appointed
acting minister following the death of
Dr Stan Gorerazvo Mudenge in October
last year.
He says he now spends most of his time buried in
newspapers.
While he continues to receive all the ministerial perks,
Tapela says he
feels bad drawing a government salary while doing
nothing.
“Literally I come here to read newspapers,” the deputy minister
told the
Daily News.
“If I was still young like you, I would do my
PhD studies here because I do
nothing on a daily basis.”
He heaped
praise on his deceased boss Mudenge’s work ethic, who he said
engaged him on
all ministerial business unlike Chombo.
Since Chombo took over, things
have dramatically changed, with directors in
his ministry also snubbing
him.
“I should be supervising the implementation of the ICT (Information
communication technology) programmes in training institutions,” Tapela
said.
“There is a director responsible for that but he has stopped
reporting to
me.”
Tapela said he is yet to be formally introduced to
the acting minister.
“I hear that we have an acting minister through the
media, he has no
courtesy even to say hello to his deputy,” Tapela
complained.
“The permanent secretary has not bothered to inform me that
there is an
acting minister, no communication to me, nothing and I mean
nothing,” said
the soft-spoken Tapela, who is also senator for
Bulilima-Mangwe.
This is not the first time that such allegations have
been levelled against
Chombo.
His deputy in the Local Government
portfolio, Sessel Zvidzai, also says he
is treated like a stranger in his
own workplace and hardly talks with his
boss.
The Daily News could
not get a comment from Chombo as his mobile phone was
unavailable.
As
the inclusive government totters to the end of its tenure, government
officials like Tapela believe intolerance by some politicians and senior
civil servants has contributed to government’s failure to deliver.
“I
think the fact that some civil servants have never worked in an
arrangement
like this, they have grown to know Zanu PF ministers only; they
cannot
accommodate other political players, I think they are too Zanu,”
Tapela
said.
“When I joined the ministry, I asked to tour all departments so
that I could
know who is who and which is which in the ministry.
“We
used to have meetings every Monday but today no one calls me for such
meetings. I am left to sit in this office with no one talking to me except
those who work in my office,” he complained.
“Why should government
have deputy ministers when ministers and permanent
secretaries are able to
do everything? Look, I am paid on monthly basis; I
get all my benefits for
sitting and reading newspapers,” said Tapela. -
Xolisani Ncube
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
Staff Reporter 22
hours 9 minutes ago
HARARE - Member of Parliament for
Bulawayo South Eddie Cross, has urged all
young Zimbabweans to stand up and
exercise their right in the coming
elections by registering to vote and
determine their future.
Addressing Christian youths at a Generation Next
Summit in Harare this week,
Cross said the biggest challenge in Zimbabwe was
the marginalisation of the
young. The summit was for the Christian youths to
debate about their
involvement in sports, politics, media and business as
ministry platforms.
“At least 62 percent of the people in the country are
below the age of 30,”
Cross said. “If young people were to exercise their
right to vote, then they
would have the power to determine what they want,
how they want to be
treated and the kind of country they envisage,” he
said.
The legislator who is also the Secretary for Policy and Research in
the MDC
said that Christians should at all times hold politicians
accountable for
their actions, more so if those politicians claimed to be
Christians yet
every moment they behave in ways contrary to the Biblical
principles of
leadership as shown by Jesus Christ.
He said people
should not elevate a politician to the level of God as has
been witnessed in
Zanu PF politics.
Turning to the draft Constitution, Cross said the draft
gave the best remedy
to the current situation by increasing the mandates of
both the Legislature
and the Judiciary. “It is important to have checks and
balances in place,”
he added.
The youths said they were interested in
participating in political processes
but raised concerns over the use of
violence during elections. They said
many young Christians find it difficult
to participate in an uncertain
environment more so when the vote is
rigged.
The youths were concerned with the voter registration process,
which they
said was cumbersome and left many eligible voters stranded due to
lack of
relevant documents such as proof of residence.
One
participant said he had tried to register as a voter but was denied the
chance on the basis that his aunt’s proof of residence was invalid.
“Zimbabwe is in the state it is in because someone somewhere chose to be
selfish. We need leadership with integrity, leadership that says everyone
should see the results and that God gets the glory.
“We want a
leadership that inspires more people to partake in national
politics. Why
can a young Christian not aspire to be a national leader? We
call on the
politicians to act with integrity knowing that they are in
positions of
influence.
“What they do and what they say has an implication on
thousands of people
today and the generation to come,” said Munya, one of
the participants.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
26/01/2013 00:00:00
by Sports
Reporter
SPORTS Minister David Coltart has accused Zimbabwe Cricket
of playing
politics after it rejected his directive on the appointment of
national
selectors.
Coltart originally wanted all national selectors
to have played for the
national team in their respective sport, but after a
dramatic public
showdown with black cricket administrators who claimed the
policy was
racial, the minister this week amended the directive “in the
national
interest”.
Instead of all the selectors having to be
ex-national team players, the new
directive will require that “not less than
50 percent of the selectors shall
have represented Zimbabwe as athletes or
players at the senior level in the
particular sport
discipline”.
Cricket and bowls are two of the sports that use a panel of
selectors to
pick the team.
The amended directive says the chairman of
the selectors should have played
for the national team – which would require
that Givemore Makoni, the
convenor of selectors for the cricket national
team, must give up that post
because he has not played for Zimbabwe. He
could still sit on the panel as
part of the less than 50 percent who have
not played at the highest level.
In an extraordinary show of defiance,
Zimbabwe Cricket said the directive –
which takes effect from February 1 –
would require it to change its
constitution and terminate contracts with the
current selectors.
Wilfred Mukondiwa, the ZC managing director said: “In
terms of the Sports
and Recreation Commission Act, it does not appear that
the Commission can
require a national association to amend its constitution
in such a manner as
to determine the persons who shall take particular
positions. That would
appear to be micro- managing the national associations
which is not
consistent with the manifest tenor of the Act.
“The Act
empowers the Commission to provide a hands-off oversight role
except in case
of a disciplinary nature. With respect therefore, it appears
that the
Commission has no legal capacity to require ZC to do what the
directive
demands.”
Stung by ZC’s open defiance, Coltart – a member of the MDC led
by Welshman
Ncube – accused cricket chiefs of playing politics to frustrate
him.
“Can you ever imagine Zimbabwe Cricket adopting this attitude if it
was a
Zanu PF minister involved? Politicians are not just those who have
formal
political positions,” Coltart said.
Coltart and the Sports
Commission appear ready to dig in, while the ZC is
readying itself for a
season of defiance.
The ZC claims there are only 10 ex-Zimbabwe stars who
qualify to sit on the
panel of selectors – and a countless number of white
ex-stars. The
accusation is that Coltart’s directive is designed to benefit
white former
players and crowd out blacks.
IN his “special report” from Zimbabwe, Jonathan Steele writes in the Guardian that the country is in good health under President Mugabe. He turns to race:
The evidence is contained in Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land…The authors criticise Mugabe’s economic mismanagement, which led to hyperinflation between 2005 and 2008. It was not the land reform that caused hyperinflation, but bad economic decisions. They say the introduction of the US dollar by the unity government four years ago brought a quicker economic recovery and hence greater benefits for farm producers than anyone expected. They have the courage to criticise Amnesty International for exaggerating the plight of farm workers who were forced off formerly “white” land taken over by Africans, and say that by 2011 the number of people working on resettlement land had increased more th
So. Whites can’t be Africans?
There’s just one final point in this article that I noticed. Steele talks about how “white” farms were invaded by “Africans”. Zimbabwe didn’t permit dual nationality, meaning that the overwhelming majority of white farmers were Zimbabwean citizens. Many have family roots in Africa going back hundreds of years. At what point do they become African? And is Steele happy for the same test to be applied to African immigrants to Europe?
Mo Farah was Somali born and is now, in the eyes of the law, an Englishman in exactly the same manner that I am. And quite rightly so too. Citizenry is just citizenry and there’s an end to it.
I think we’d all agree that various at The Guardian would sign on to that concept too.
So why does this not apply to Zimbabweans? Why are those of pinkish hue not allowed to own land while those duskier may?
And I’m sorry but we can’t claim “original inhabitants” either. The Bantu are as much a novelty in that part of the world as the Normans are in the UK. Which gives us another comparator: we’re told, repeatedly, that it’s appalling that the descendants of the Norman invaders still own appreciable amounts of land in the UK. So why do we insist that Zimbabwean land must be given to Bantus instead of to Khoi San? After all, they got invaded, murdered and oppressed at about the same time the Anglo Saxons did.
One white farmer told the Telegraph:
“What stung more, though, were the “Go back to Britain” slogans they shouted – meaningless to a man who is in fact of French Huguenot stock, has only ever held a Zimbabwean passport, and has nowhere else to go even if he wanted to. Infuriatingly, the view that he has no longer a citizen of his own country is shared by the black prosecutor who will oversee his trespass case next week, who has described him in previous court appearances as merely a ‘visitor’. I have never viewed myself as anything other than Zimbabwean, and that is what hurts me most. We are not being looked at as citizens of this country, yet my father was born here before Robert Mugabe. What future do we have when you are fighting people of that mentality?”
Dear Family and Friends,
When we heard the news that fifteen thousand
crocodiles had escaped
from a crocodile farm into the swirling waters of the
flooded Limpopo
River, it seemed hardly surprising after a fortnight of the
strangest
events occurring in Zimbabwe. Our internationally famous
boundary
river, immortalized in Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Just So Stories,’
had
changed from the “great grey-green greasy Limpopo River” into
a
swollen, raging flooded monster. No one could believe the pictures
of
the flooded Limpopo, or the news that at one stage the border
post
actually had to close for a while until the water subsided. Was
this
the same river that thousands of Zimbabweans wade across chest
deep,
when they’re jumping the border into South Africa? Was this the
same
river that most of us can only ever remember as being a great
wide
river bed which always looks more sand bank than water? The
fifteen
thousand escaped crocodiles had come from a flooded farm on the
South
African side of the Limpopo and while seven thousand had
been
re-captured the rest were still at large. One croc had even
been
sighted on the rugby field of a school in Musina.
A few days before
the Limpopo River flood a strange report had
appeared in the government
controlled Herald newspaper from their
Beitbridge Bureau. The report spoke of
a woman who had found a number
of strange objects in a field. According to
the Herald, and in their
own unique wording, these objects included: “red
pieces of clothes
tied with a red string, a new razor blade, some padlocks, a
pick stuck
on a tree trunk, a new pot with a lid and several
matchsticks.”
Aaah, the joy of the Herald’s descriptive language we thought,
and
read on to discover that a local Ward Councillor had called for
an
urgent cleansing ceremony as people believed this was witchcraft.
The
thought of crocs on the rugby field and razor blades and
matchsticks in a
field were almost as weird as the story of the
talking bus that had been
making news. An abandoned minibus in Mount
Hampden apparently drove itself to
its current location, left no
tracks on the ground and ‘talks’ to anyone that
tries to remove
parts from the vehicle. Locals say that when someone stole
the wheels,
they were mysteriously returned a few days later; they suspected
the
bus had spoken or maybe it was something to do with the large
and
mysterious snake that wasn’t really a snake that someone said they
saw
slithering out of the vehicle.
As if all of this wasn’t peculiar enough, then
came the tragedy in
Chitungwiza. A massive explosion in a house in a high
density area
killed five people, including a seven month old baby, and blew
the
walls and roofs off at least four neighbouring homes. The
explosion
had taken place in the house of a traditional healer and theories
as
to the possible causes grew wilder by the day. A relation of
the
deceased healer said the family believed the healer had
supernatural
powers and a mermaid spirit. Reports told of people scattering
salt on
the road around the area to ward off evil spirits that may have
been
let loose in the blast. Then came the story that the healer had
been
sending lightening to strike a target in a process people
apparently
call ‘bluetooth.’ The theory was that the chosen target of
the
lightning was protected by a more powerful force and the
‘bluetooth
had been returned to sender,’ hence the explosion. No story
so
strange could be complete without the goblins, yes goblins, also
being
blamed for the explosion although it wasn’t clear if this was
a
disgruntled customer returning a goblin, or a angry goblin who
didn’t
want to be returned. It took a few days before theories of
juju, black magic
and witchcraft were squashed by experts who said
this was a bomb of some
sort.
And while everyone was trying not to pay attention to stories
about
talking buses, mermaids, goblins and home- made
return-to-sender
lightning, something else very strange happened in Zimbabwe.
Despite
four years of arguing, stalling and accusations, it was
suddenly
announced that political leaders had agreed on the new
draft
constitution and that we could expect a referendum in March. The
irony
of two such dramatically different guiding life principles was
not
lost on us and so we look to the future while our feet seem
firmly
stuck in the past. Until next time, thanks for reading, love
cathy.
26th January 2013. Copyright � Cathy Buckle. www.cathybuckle.com
