2010 07 23
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5701.html
23 July, 2010
Lance Guma
In a hard hitting interview, party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said it was now necessary for the leadership to meet.
Harare
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party will have to meet and decide whether to continue participating in the current constitutional outreach exercise which has been marred by incidents of violence and intimidation.
In a hard hitting interview, party spokesman Nelson Chamisa said it was now necessary for the leadership to meet and ‘say under the circumstances what is our continued participation in this process. What is the end and what is the product?’
He told Newsreel they were receiving reports from their structures, and even from ZANU PF supporters, complaining that they were being frog marched into torture bases, and indoctrinated on what to say before being taken to outreach meetings.
‘This is very ugly a picture, very disturbing a trend and very discouraging a pattern. When one looks at what has been happening across the whole country it’s not as if people are being allowed to express themselves.’
He likened what was happening to the siege mentality that accompanied the bloody election violence of 2008, when Mugabe and his ZANU PF party lost elections and sent out army units to murder over 500 opposition supporters in retribution.
So will the MDC pull out from the outreach ?.
‘Look I can’t do that, I have no power to make those kind of alternatives or permutations. The leadership will look at these issues forensically and surgically and come up with a position’. He said people are being turned into robots and this had made the outreach a farce.
The constitutional outreach program, meant to gather people’s views on the new constitution, has exposed the deep political polarization and intolerance that still exists between ZANU PF and MDC supporters.
Since the program resumed this week, after a week long break, tension, friction and shouting matches have characterized most of the meetings. Even signaling your intention to contribute a view by raising a hand, has now been politicized by the participants.
When MDC supporters want to contribute to debate, they raise their hands as any other person would do. And here lies the problem. An open palm is a gesture linked to the MDC party symbol. In retaliation, ZANU PF supporters have resorted to raising their hands- fists clenched- a style made popular by Mugabe when sloganeering.
Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa said it was clear there is still much animosity between supporters of ZANU PF and the MDC. He said these incidents, and many others being observed at the meetings, are clear indicators of the dark cloud of political polarization and intolerance characterizing the political terrain in the country.
‘At times you witness shouting matches when people try to put across their party positions. This is happening in meetings mainly in rural areas where deep mistrust among the supporters still exist, Muchemwa said.
He said the program is beset with administrative problems, ranging from lack of accommodation to shortages of funds for outreach teams. Some COPAC members threatened to down tools this week when they failed to get their allowances.
‘There’s a serious problem out there and COPAC seems to be failing to cope with the crisis. Some people are going hungry because they are not being paid their allowances,’ Muchemwa added.
There are a total of 70 outreach teams, totaling 700 people, deployed countrywide. They will spend two months gathering the views of the public on the new constitution which will replace the negotiated 1979 Lancaster House constitution. - SW Radio
2010 07 24
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/Entertainment/5700.html
24 July, 2010
By Faris Hussain
Colombian Singer Shakira - The song is inspired by the 1986 global hit “Zangalewa” by the group Golden Sounds of Cameroon.
With a win for Spain, the football World Cup is over. But the Controversy for the Famous World Cup Song has just started. The Official Song of FIFA world cup, 2010 ‘Waka Waka (this time for Africa)’ by Colombian Singer Shakira is sued for Copyright Infringement in Zimbabwe.
The song is inspired by the 1986 global hit “Zangalewa” by the group Golden Sounds of Cameroon. The song features Zolani Mahola of the South African group Freshlyground, singing in Xhosa, one of the official languages of South Africa.
Earlier this week, El Nuevo Día reported that famed Dominican Singer/Songwriter, Wilfrido Vargas, plans to sue Columbian singer, Shakira, for the unauthorized use of his music in Shakira's "Waka Waka - This time for Africa" song (for the 2010 World Cup).
But if the authorities were to find Shakira guilty of plagiarism, $ 11 million is like one strand of her knappy cat hair. So it’s likely that Waka-Waka will continue.
There was a speculation in the last few months that Wilfrido Vargas wanted to sue Shakira for the Chorus of Waka Waka but apparently now is official. (Websites, tabloids etc) He is suing her for 11 MILLION!
Here's the background info - Wilfrido Vargas is a Latin Merengue singer, he created a group of female singers called Las Chicas CAN CAN.
This group used to perform a song called "El negro no puede". Which has the WAKA WAKA chorus.
What Wilfrido is Forgetting that the chorus was not written by him, but from the group Golden Sounds from Cameroon from their song ZANGALEWA.
They allege Shakira and her label Sony, have stolen music and lyrics from their preexisting 1980's song “Zangalewa.” The group found out about the song theft the hard way, like most copyright holders whose works are infringed, receiving a nasty shock whilst listening to the radio one day.
Another African artist in Cameroon, Kéké Kassiry, spotted elements of his preexisting copyrighted works in "Waka Waka" as well. He has joined with Golden Sounds and have initiated litigation against Shakira and Sony. Really, at the end of the day, what does Shakira or Sony known about African music.
It is not uncommon in Hollywood for multiple artists' preexisting works to be infringed for the same derivative song. During a legal case against chronic copyright thief, Mariah Carey, a recording studio worktape revealed the singer stealing an indie artist's copyrighted song.
Carey was heard on the official studio worktape, talking about items to pilfer from the unknown's song and pairing it with other elements she was taking from a preexisting, released, George Michael track, all without permission or payment, for the same tune she was recording.
African artistes accuse Shakira
Posted on Thursday 15 July 2010
15 - 42 - FIFA World Cup 2010 song Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) written and performed by Colombian-born singer Shakira is stirring copyright controversies. Initially, it aroused some consternation among some Africans, especially those in the music world, why an African artiste was not chosen to do a song destined for a World Cup hosted in Africa.
But now, it’s getting deeper as some African musicians have begun to accuse Shakira of plagiarizing the rhythm and lyrics of Waka Waka, and are demanding compensation for copyright infringement.
First, the Cameroonian mid-80s musical group Golden Sounds (now called Zangalewa) publicly accused Shakira of using without permission their 1985 title “Zangalewa”, which now sounds “Saminamina” in Shakira’s remix...
Immediately after Golden Sounds’ proclamation, another African singer this time from Cote D’Ivoire - Kéké Kassiry - said Waka Waka belonged to him originally. In an interview with Ivorian newspaper Notre Voie, Kassiry declared that he recorded his version in 1986 and duly registered its right with a copyright society in France...
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5699.html
23 July, 2010
By Tanonoka Joseph Whande
Since the banning of the Daily News, we have lost thousands of our compatriots.
My compatriots, I salute you! It has been six agonizing years since Jonathan Moyo effectively stopped us from communicating with each other when The Daily News was banned.
You inspired me to write my Tuesday column in the Daily News. I always got a lot from you, especially when we suddenly realized that we were all orphans, proud children of Zimbabwe with no leader. Today, we are still orphans and we still don't have a leader.
Our country is surprisingly producing more refugees than any country in the world, including those countries at war and those involved in internal armed conflict.
A lot has happened since the banning of the Daily News yet, in reality, we have not moved very far. The number of politicians who claim to be working for our emancipation has more than tripled.
In spite of that, we remain mirred in dehumanizing circumstances. We are still orphans. Be that as it may, I still maintain that Zimbabwe is the best country in the world, not because of Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and the rest of them, but in spite of them.
Sadly, the politics of personal survival as first espoused by Mugabe, and now practised by Tsvangirai and the rest of them, is carried out over broken homes and over the dead bodies of our citizens.
Since the banning of the Daily News, we have lost thousands of our compatriots.
The old disused mine shafts yawn, challenging us and the heavens to come and take a peek into their depths and reclaim the remains of our compatriots. It is a state secret and treasonous for anyone to tell us where our loved ones lie.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's otherwise beautiful countryside beckons us to take a walk around and collect the bones of our loved ones who were snatched from within us, having committed no crime.
They were brutalized into death by those who wanted more than they could use.
Greed.
After the political hyenas were done with our compatriots, they threw them into token graves that invited hyenas and other Zimbabwean animals to feast upon our loved ones. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk,ť" the Good Book admonishes us, but who is listening ?.
I never got the chance to mourn the demise of the Daily News.
But, knowing its determination, I reckoned Robert Mugabe, Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba and ZANU-PF were in for a long wait.
They were all just as much of prisoners as those whose freedom they had take away. And I still ask today, who in Zimbabwe is free to do and say what they want ?.
Not Mugabe; that's for sure. Because Constantine Chiwenga and Augustine Chihuri might fidget and Uncle Bob wouldn't want that, would he ?.
Not Tsvangirai; that's for sure. He is choked with a mouthful of honey as the gravy train idles just outside his door, waiting to take him anywhere in the world he wants to go.
Tsvangirai wouldn't want to rock the boat, would he ?.
And, please, I beg you; don't talk to me about Welshman Ncube and Arthur Mutambara.
We are talking serious staff here, unless if you are one of those who believe that Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch water. (Water flows downhill, stupid; Jack was no fool!).
After independence, our freedom fighters started saying something along the lines of "reaping the fruits of our efforts"ť.
"We died for this country" the walking dead said, demanding hefty financial compensation, which Mugabe gave to them, thereby removing patriotism and plunging the Zimbabwean dollar into the abyss from which it has never recovered.
Last week, the Finance Minister said that we will be importing foreign coins for use in our country.
Zudha!
And the so-called freedom fighters are still asking for more. War veterans say they are reaping the rewards of their efforts. Everybody, except the common people who carried the burden of liberating our country, is reaping the rewards of their effortsť.
Those who had their chickens, goats and cows killed, in addition to having their daughters raped, given fatherless children, had no play in this whole episode. Then there are chancers who exploit the gaps between enemies and friends, ramming themselves in between, making themselves more important than the two people on either side.
Enter Jonathan Moyo!
Moyo's elbows nudged Mugabe and his closest friends so far to opposite sides that none of them could hear or see the other. He destroyed our media and antagonized us. Moyo took a cue from the hyenas of our wild.
Hyenas literally always have the lion's share of the fallen animals they have not hunted by simply causing chaos during a feed. After the feed, nothing is left, except bones and traces of blood. It is called decimation.
And that is what Jonathan Moyo did to our media at a time when we were looking for better media tidings.
But like all impostors, his time in the sun was short lived. Unfortunately for Moyo, hyenas have an inborn instinct for survival. They can continue causing chaos and feeding well till their natural time is up.
Moyo fell from grace and tried to cause chaos from outside but the lions and the buffaloes in ZANU-PF knew just a little bit too much about him and simply shut him out.
He is now trying to resuscitate himself by running for the chairmanship of some ZANU-PF district. And I do not think that is funny at all. Africans are very apprehensive about death and about anything that has to do with death.
Even as little boys, we avoided graves and were not even allowed at funerals. Africans are simply afraid of death, whether it is in the home or outside. But there is only one thing that Africans are more afraid of than death and
that is a dead person coming back to life. Imagine if you came back from the cemetery where you had just laid your father to rest but find him sitting on the doorstep of your house, waiting for you to come and unlock the door!
My guess is that you won't run towards him to give him a hug but would turn and run away like hell and never return to that house ever again. So, I say not only to the Daily News but to all Zimbabwean media, including so-called government media, that Jonathan Moyo is trying to rise from the politically dead.
And that is not good news at all.
While conceding that Jonathan Moyo is our compatriot and that he has the right to do or say whatever he wants as a Zimbabwean, I also take note of the fact that Zimbabwe does not need his skewed ideas of taking freedom from the people.
Even after he fell out of farvour with those who had given him space to silence people, he is given space to speak his mind by the same papers he caused to cease publishing.
Meanwhile, I still consider the MDC as an opposition party because they are not in control of anything. The Ministry of Finance appears to be doing something right if we consider that Mugabe and ZANU-PF parliamentarians grudgingly approve of Minister Tendai Biti's performance but not the MDC itself, Not Tsvangirai.
Not Ian and Theresa Mokone, the alleged advisors and financial backers to Tsvangirai.
The MDC is in the wilderness, a misty wilderness, but they don't care because they are receiving manna from heaven while the people are starving.
Watch this space!
I welcome back the Daily News. I hope we can continue to engage our compatriots into debate, that is all I want to do. I am no one's leader and no one's teacher.
I have no manifesto, nor do I have solutions in the face of two political parties that seem to be getting along very well at our expense. I only react to what those who offer themselves as our leaders do. I ask and prode and hope for an answer here and there.
I only have the advantage of this column, Tanonoka Whande On Friday, to ask my questions and provoke debate among ourselves. I learn from our people.
I,like so many others, hoped that the MDC would give us a new direction. In all honesty, I am now afraid to hope. The MDC is part of a government we have been fighting for so long.
Will the MDC please come out and distinguish itself from ZANU-PF ?.
That's all I ask. As your compatriot, I get my cue from you.
To the Daily News I say, please inform the people about the truth, just as you did before. And to the rest of us,well, LET's DO IT! - This article was first published in the Daily News.
2010 07 23 -
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5698.html
23 July, 2010
By John Gambanga, Editor Daily News
Theresa Makone - “In Standard One ( Grade Three ) I did so well in the final examinations that I was promoted to Standard Three ( Grade Five).
Harare
Some people have nicknamed her the Iron Lady of Zimbabwean politics. Theresa Makone, the newly appointed co-Minister of Home Affairs is a scientist, mother, businesswoman and politician.
She has made friends and enemies since she rose to national prominence on Zimbabwe’s rough and bumpy political landscape a few years ago.
Recently she sparked a political uproar within the MDC-T, the party she joined in 2000 , when she accompanied Zanu PF Minister Didymus Mutasa to Mbare police station looking for his son Martin who had been detained.
But the tough talking and no nonsense Minister defended her move saying she was only doing her job as a cabinet minister and that she could have done that to any other Zimbabwean in that predicament.
Her critics, both within her party and outside, did not accept that explanation and ruled her out of step.
In an exclusive interview in her Harare office, Minister Makone fobbed off her critics saying once she is convinced that she is doing the correct thing, “nothing will stop her.”
An aggressive individual who knows and stands for her rights, she said she became a political activist “way back in 1973 when I was a student at the University of Rhodesia in Mt Pleasant. I was arrested along with many other students for taking part in a strike over the arrest of student leaders and the racial discrimination in the allocation of residences at the campus.”
After her release she absconded from university and fled to Botswana.
With the assistance of the late Ariston Chambati and Professor Gordon Chavunduka, both lecturers at the university then, she enrolled at the University of Nottingham in the UK in 1974 where she read for a Bachelor of Science degree in Bio-Chemistry and Food Science.
She later obtained a Diploma in Leadership Management from Waco University in Texas in the USA and another in International Therapy from the British Council of Aestheticienne.
Minister Makone joined the MDC in January 2000 in Hwedza where her husband’s family have a farm in Zviyambe small scale farming community.
“I decided to join the new party because I liked its philosophy, values and solidarity with the ordinary people. I strongly felt that Zanu had lost direction somewhere along the way. I did not cast my vote between 1990 and 2000 because I did not belong to any political party, ” she explained.
She became the MDC branch treasurer in Zviyambe West in 2000 and worked with the Election Support Group during the elections that year and a year later was elected treasurer for Hwedza district.
In the 2005 elections she stood unsuccessfully for the MDC against Zanu PF’s Aeneas Chigwedere for the Hwedza Constituency.
“In 2006, I was elected unopposed by all the eleven district from Chivhu to Mtawatawa as the chairperson for the MDC in Mashonaland East,” she said.
She is very much aware that the political daggers which were drawn against her when she assumed the post of chairperson of the MDC-T National Women’s Assembly in October 2007 were sharpened when she was recently appointed to her new cabinet portfolio from the Ministry of Public Works. But she sees this as a political challenge not an impediment because “ you can’t please everybody.”
She is the first born in a large family of ten children from Domboshava district .
“I was born Theresa Chigariro on 6 October in 1952 at Highfield Clinic in Harare where our family lived. My father Titus Chigariro was a school teacher and my mother was a house wife.”
‘My mother was a strong and loving character who raised me strictly and developed me into the person that I am today,” explained the Minister.
She attended Mhizha Primary school in Highfield and Chirodzo Primary school in Mbare where she showed her exceptionally sharp mind at an early age.
“In Standard One ( Grade Three ) I did so well in the final examinations that I was promoted to Standard Three ( Grade Five).
My father sent me to Makumbe Boarding School in my rural home of Domboshava for my upper primary schooling.”
She moved to Monte Cassino Girls High School in Macheke for her secondary school where she won a Rhodes Scholarship for academic excellence after her Junior Certificate and that saw her through Forms three and four.
Her outstanding results at O-level won her a second scholarship, the Beit Trust Scholarship that enabled her to attend St Ignatius College, Chishawasha, where she took chemistry, biology, physics and subsidiary mathematics at A-level.
“I was among the first four girls to study at the former boys only school,” she recalled.
In 1973 she enrolled at the University of Rhodesia in Mt Pleasant to read for a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, botany and zoology.
Among her contemporaries where the late Witness Mangwende, Ian Makone, Dambudzo Marechera and Simba Makoni who were all members of the Students Representative Council that was expelled by the authorities that year, plunging the university into chaos.
The students protested against the racial nature of the residences and Theresa joined other students and went on strike.
She married her husband Ian Makone, who was also studying in the UK in 1974. Their first daughter, Taneta was born in the UK at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
‘That is where I met Didymus Mutasa and his wife, a nurse who assisted me during maternity.” said Theresa.
When she returned home from the UK in 1978, she joined Chibuku Breweries as the first female Development Chemist.
Three years later she moved to Sterling Winthrop Pharmaceutical Company in Harare as a Quality Assurance Director before going back to the food industry as the first Chief Technologist at Cairns Foods where two years later she was promoted to the post of Research and Development Manager.
Realising that the company would never appoint her director because of her gender, she decided to resign to go into business.
She formed her own beauty clinic which she still runs up to today
Makone’s husband, an economist by training, is the chief advisor to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The couple have two daughters, Taneta, who graduated in law from Oxford University and Nyarai who read History of Art at Edinburgh University.
Away from the hustle and bustle of political life Theresa Makone says she loves agriculture and runs a thriving poultry project at her rural home in Domboshava where the family has built an impressive homestead. - Daily News
2010 07 23
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5694.html
23 July, 2010
Business sources said Leo Mugabe, has hit hard times lately as all political avenues to make money have been closed.
Harare
Leo Mugabe, the President's forgotten nephew has hit hard times lately as the Mugabe's family fueds get worse amid reports that the President and his sister Sabina are nolonger on speaking terms over the aging dictator's wealth now under control of the First lady Grace Mugabe.
The official line is that Sabina Mugabe is polly and in retirement, but sources said she has sulked herself into private life in the aftermath of vicious family fueds in which her son Leo led a majority of the Mugabe's clan against the First Lady Grace Mugabe.
Sabina has effectively renounced her Zanu PF membership as a result of the fall-out.
The two centres of power in Zimbabwe's most powerful clan are believed to be spending huge amounts of money exorcising evil spirits and machinations, accusations and counter accusations as clashes takes toll.
A family feud with only one likely winner - First Family.
Last year ZANU-PF politburo members in Mashonaland West tried to persuade Sabina Mugabe to take up a post in the province defying a directive by President Robert Mugabe that her sister should not stand for any election due to ill health, but sources said Grace Mugabe who is now the undisputed power in the party's Womens' League stepped in to block the appointment.
Sources said Leo Mugabe has survived asssination attempts on a number of occassions and senior family members have tried to bring the feuding parties together, but to no avail.
Those in business say the former ZIFA President, has hit hard times lately as all political avenues "to make money" have been closed.
Early this year, his truck containing thousands of cigarette cattons was siezed by police on the border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique and he escaped jail with a warning and the truck and its contents confisticated by the State.
On her side, the First lady Grace Mugabe has a powerful team of politicians and business partners including the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono who are backing her in business and they are making sure Leo Mugabe has hit hard times.
Three years ago Leo Mugabe made the call for Gono to be sacked as Reserve Bank Governor and invastigated.
To his clan members, Mugabe is saying the wealth belongs to his children and he has outflanked the rebel nephew Leo Mugabe and gave a cabinet post to Leo's rival brother Patrick Zhuwawo as Deputy Minister of Science and Technology.
The two sons of Sabina Mugabe, Leo and Patrick have different fathers and Leo's father is the late former ZIFA Secretary-General in the early 80s and owner of Mboma buses in the 70s and early 80s and Patrick Zhuwawo is fathered by a Mozambican man. The two brothers don't see eye to eye.
Since 1985, Sabina has been MP for the Mugabe family's home area of Zvimba, about 80 kilometres north-west of Harare. Her eldest son, Innocent, was director of the state's Central Intelligence Organisation until his death a few years ago.
Leo, is owner and chief executive of a construction and telecommunications consortium, Integrated Engineering Group which is now close to liquidation due to piling debts. In the past, IEG has been awarded contracts running into billions of dollars to construct public buildings, often ahead of far more experienced companies, but the money has not been put to good use.
The latest test of Leo's troubles is his claims to be a shareholder in Telecel Zimbabwe through Empowerment Corporation, where he has called for a meeting to nominate a candidate to replace Jane Mutasa on the board of the mobile phone company.
Mr Mugabe confirmed the meeting yesterday although he denied that the meeting was a plot to remove Mrs Mutasa.
"Members are free to offer themselves for re-election," he said.
The businessman-cum-politician also maintained that he was a shareholder in EC.
EC, a significant shareholder in Telecel Zimbabwe, holds 40 percent equity while Telecel International, the foreign partner, holds a controlling 60 percent stake.
Originally, EC was composed of six organisations vying for a stake in the mobile telecommunications firm.
Businessman James Makamba represented the EC interests on the Telecel board and was later replaced by Mrs Mutasa after he slipped out of the country when police launched investigations on his alleged externalisation of foreign currency.
Telecel, however, suspended Mrs Mutasa as acting chairperson in March this year when the Harare businesswoman was arrested on allegations of defrauding the company of airtime worth US$ 750 000. The Attorney-General has since declined to prosecute.
Grace Mugabe is believed to be backing Jane Mutasa not to give up on Telecel in order to "fix" Leo and the First Lady's close relative, the Attorney General's Chief State Prosecutor Chris Mutangadura is alleged to be behind AG office's refesual to prosecute Mrs Mutasa.
Sources said Mr Mugabe, a former legislator and football administrator, has been mobilising support to ensure Mrs Mutasa’s ouster.
"The annual general meeting is scheduled for Tuesday next week. It seeks to elect new leadership of the Empowerment Corporation and eventually elect a board representative on the Telecel board," said sources familiar with the latest developments.
Mr Mugabe along with Mr Shepherd Kapota and Mr Moffat Marashwa are eyeing the chairmanship.
Mrs Mutasa declined to comment.
She, however, recently confirmed to local media that there were wrangles within the EC, accusing "greedy and ambitious elements and individuals who never paid for the shares".
We could not obtain the actual EC shareholding structure, but it is reliably understood that Mrs Mutasa and Mr Makamba are the major shareholders in the corporation.
Sources said CBZ Bank wrote to EC that the Z$ 140 000 cheque drawn by Mr Mugabe in 1999 meant for subscription was dishonoured and that was when he lost his stake in Telecel, and it is believed Gideon Gono played a part in the bank's actions.
The AAG was allocated shares equivalent to 9 percent but failed to subscribe. Mr Philip Chiyangwa, a founding member of the lobby group, eventually bought the shares.
He is understood to have later sold his stake to Mrs Mutasa and Mr Makamba.
Magamba Echimurenga, a consortium representing war veterans, is also understood to have cashed in on their shares in Telecel.
Other groups forming the corporation failed to subscribe. These included the National Miners’ Association, IBWO and the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union.
Telecel insiders have, however, queried how Mr Mugabe could call for an AGM yet he "is not a known shareholder in Empowerment Corporation".
"It’s not a secret that his cheque meant to subscribe for the shares was dishonoured. Each and every member had a right to subscribe."
2010 07 22
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5691.html
22 July, 2010
Phillip Chiyangwa's criminal cases will be dealt accordingly s no one was above the law.
* * * * * * * *
Harare
Political crimes won't be shelved... Cases of people implicated in political violence during the last ten years will not be swept under the carpet but will be handled in accordance with guidelines of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) , the co- Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone has said.
The GPA was signed on 15 September 2008 by Zanu PF and the two factions of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
The agreement was signed after a decade of political, economic and social crisis that caused great suffering on the Zimbabwean people.
In an interview with the Daily News in Harare ( Thursday), Minister Makone ( MDC-T), who heads the ministry of Home Affairs jointly with Kembo Mohadi of Zanu PF said criminal cases such as the one involving Kitsiyatota who was implicated in the death of the former driver of Morgan Tsvangirai Talent Mabika and his assistant Tichaona Chiminya would be dealt with by the organ for National Healing and Reconciliation.
She said under Article 18,5 (c) of the GPA agreement, ,”All political crimes of violence committed during the last ten years will be dealt with under the organ for National Healing and Reconciliation.
Most of the cases will be handled at the local level because we want the people to tell us how they want the cases to be handled. The perpetrators should own up and express remorse and forgiveness for what they did in a typical African way.”
She said that after the healing process Zimbabweans should never again “allow politics to take over the soul and spirit of the nation and cost it the progress that it needs”.
Reacting to a question about inaction on the part of the police in cases such as the ones involving prominent businessman Phillip Chiyangwa the Minister said criminal cases will be dealt accordingly s no one was above the law.
Turning to the violence that has been reported during the current constitutional outreach programme, Minister Makone said the police are under instructions not to brook any nonsense if the lives of people are threatened.
She said her office had received some cases of politically instigated violence and the police have acted speedily to bring the culprits to book.
Unfortunately, she said, in other cases, police have failed to identify the perpetrators of violence because they will not have been given the correct place and the names of the victims and perpetrators.
Minister Makone cited the case of the MDC-T member who was abducted by Zanu PF youths in Concession recently during the outreach programme and said she personally went to the area to find out what was going on.
“The police stepped in and the man was later released,” she explained.
In another case of violence in ward 25 of Shamva North district, she said an MDC -T woman was harassed by Zanu PF youths who accused her of submitting a written response to the Copac team instead of speaking in front of everybody else.
“The woman was accused of being an MDC-T supporter and was victimised for that. The police in Bindura came to her rescue and a formal complaint was lodged. The matter is being investigated and the law will take its course, “she said.
Responding to accusations levelled against her for accompanying the Minister of State in the President ‘s Office, Didymus Mutasa to Mbare Police Station to seek the release of his son Martin recently, Minister Makone said was doing her duty as a cabinet minister.
“ I am not at all related to the Mutasas . The Minister is a Nyati and my husband , who is from Chipinge is actually a Hungwe or Shiri. I have known the Mutasas for a long time. Mai Mutasa, a nurse by profession, assisted me when I gave birth to my eldest daughter Taneta at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where she worked,”
Minister Makone said people must realise that the police do not have jurisdiction of criminal case once offenders have been handed to the courts.
“That becomes the responsibility of the Justice Ministry,” she stressed.
On accusations of corruption and partisan within the police force, the Minister said ,”With a work force of 39 000 people, it would be unthinkable not to get cases of corruption and political allegiances. But the authorities are doing their best to ensure that the police apply the law evenly without political influence.”
Minister Makone said being new in her job, she is still on a familiarisation of the police force, guided by the Police Charter and she is not yet in a position to introduce any changes. - Daily News
2010 07 23
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5690.html
23 July, 2010
Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner General, Augustine Chihuri was on Thursday expected to inspect all police stations in the city.
* * * * * * * *
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner General, Augustine Chihuri’s kilometre long motorcade brought business in the Bulawayo central business district to a standstill on Wednesday.
Chihuri was on Thursday expected to inspect all police stations in the city and also officiate at a pass out parade of police recruits who had completed training at Ntabazinduna Police Training depot.
More than 20 armed police officers in riot gear and in different cars escorted Chihuri’s 500 metre long motorcade from the Joshua Nqabuko Nkomo airport,about 30 km outside the city.
About six police traffic road blocks had been mounted along Robert Mugabe Way from the airport to Rainbow hotel in the city centre where he was staying.
At the hotel, armed police officers were also seen patrolling the whole day.
“We were shocked to see such a long and heavily guarded motorcade in the city centre. At first I thought it was President Robert Mugabe but now I understand it was for Chihuri,”said George Ncube a newspaper vendor.
Some workers at the Bulawayo Rainbow hotel told Radio VOP that they were shocked with the kind of security Chihuri was getting these days.
“Since he arrived here yesterday, he is staying under very tight security. We don’t know why, because the kind of security he is getting these days is even more than what Vice-Presidents and Prime Minister are getting,” one Bulawayo Rainbow hotel worker said.
On Thursday morning the Radio VOP crew witnessed the commissioner general‘s convoy heading for Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot along Harare Road with a traffic police officer at each and every junction of the highway stopping motorists to give safe passage to Chihuri’s motorcade.
Early this month Chihuri ordered the arrest of controversial Zanu (PF) member and businessman Temba Mliswa for labelling the police chief corrupt and suggesting that he should be fired from his job.
Mliswa is still in remand prison facing numerous fraud charges including allegedly acquiring a motor spares company, Noshio Holdings Company illegally, looting farm equipment and properties and defrauding the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. - Radio VOP
2010 07 22
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5688.html
22 July, 2010
Thulani Mpofu,
Telecommunications infrustructure have crumbled due to lack of talent as engineers fled the country.
Harare
Thomas Madondoro left Zimbabwe for Toronto in 2004 seeking a better life. He had trained as a journalist at the respected Harare Polytechnic, from which he graduated in 1999, and then worked for three local newspapers, but the economic crisis and a difficult media environment chased him away.
He had trained as a journalist at the respected Harare Polytechnic, from which he graduated in 1999, and then worked for three local newspapers, but the economic crisis and a difficult media environment chased him away.
At 32, he now holds a graduate certificate in Canadian journalism for internationally trained writers and a bachelor’s degree in geography from York University.
Six years after he left Zimbabwe, his country is calling him back through the Zimbabwe Human Capital Initiative (ZHCI), a programme that seeks to harness the skills found in the diaspora.
“The initiative is very good,” said Mr Madondoro by e-mail from Toronto. “The idea of setting up a job bank specifically targeting Zimbabweans in the diaspora provides valuable intelligence that is needed to succeed. The site will provide individuals with information they need to advance their careers. Companies will be able to hire highly qualified staff.”
A website provides a platform for skilled Zimbabweans to create profiles that can be used by potential local employers. It also provides information on investment opportunities.
Job listings are available on the website, www.zimbabwehumancapital.org, for architects, engineers, doctors, nurses, radiographers, university lecturers, surveyors and other occupations. Prospective employers range from the government and private companies to civic bodies and foreign embassies.
Between three million and four million Zimbabweans live abroad, according to a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report, “The potential contribution of the Zimbabwean Diaspora to economic recovery”, published in May.
Most of them left the country at the onset of the economic and political crisis in 2000 and settled in South Africa, Britain, Canada, Australia, the United States and New Zealand.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development reported that in 2007 Zimbabwe received US$ 361 million (Dh1.3 billion) in remittances, excluding in-kind transfers from people working abroad. This represented 7.2 per cent of the country’s 2007 gross domestic product.
But their departure created a human resource deficit, more pronounced now as the government struggles to rebuild the economy.
Washington Mbizvo, permanent secretary in the ministry of higher and tertiary education, said diaspora Zimbabweans have potential to help rebuild their country. “Countries like India, Israel and others in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have strong diaspora communities, which have for years played key roles in the growth of their economies. We have millions abroad whose skills and investments can transform our country if properly harnessed.”
Gilbert Muponda wants the government to do more to persuade exiles to return. He said efforts are uncoordinated, suggesting that the setting up of a ministry of diaspora affairs could help refocus the initiative.
Non-resident Zimbabweans “represent a whole generation of exported Zimbabweans who can use their newly acquired skills, networks, ideas and access to resources to rebuild Zimbabwe and rebrand it.
“The starting point would obviously be a skills audit and outreach programme” that would assess people’s skills and their ability to help the country rebuild, he wrote on Zimbabwe Telegraph, an online publication he owns and runs from Canada.
The UNDP document says diaspora remittances can play a major short-term role in supporting households and alleviating poverty but longer-term recovery will depend on the return of human capital and skills.
In Brisbane, Australia, 29-year-old Viola Chari, a former teacher now a nurse, wants to return to Zimbabwe, but she would like to see the economy recover first.
“It is very difficult to move again unless you are sure you are making the right decision and there is no choice. Home is best, but home must take care of you.” - The National
2010 07 22
Dave Fish Eagle on Jul 22nd, 2010 and filed under Main Headline, Politics.
POLITICAL CRIMES WON’T BE SHELVED…
Cases of people implicated in political violence during the last ten years will not be swept under the carpet but will be handled in accordance with guidelines of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) , the co- Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone has said.
The GPA was signed on 15 September 2008 by Zanu PF and the two factions of the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara.
The agreement was signed after a decade of political, economic and social crisis that caused great suffering on the Zimbabwean people.
In an interview with the Daily News in Harare ( Thursday), Minister Makone ( MDC-T), who heads the ministry of Home Affairs jointly with Kembo Mohadi of Zanu PF said criminal cases such as the one involving Kitsiyatota who was implicated in the death of the former driver of Morgan Tsvangirai Talent Mabika and his assistant Tichaona Chiminya would be dealt with by the organ for National Healing and Reconciliation.
She said under Article 18,5 (c) of the GPA agreement, ,”All political crimes of violence committed during the last ten years will be dealt with under the organ for National Healing and Reconciliation.
Most of the cases will be handled at the local level because we want the people to tell us how they want the cases to be handled. The perpetrators should own up and express remorse and forgiveness for what they did in a typical African way.”
She said that after the healing process Zimbabweans should never again “allow politics to take over the soul and spirit of the nation and cost it the progress that it needs”.
Reacting to a question about inaction on the part of the police in cases such as the ones involving prominent businessman Phillip Chiyangwa the Minister said criminal cases will be dealt accordingly s no one was above the law.
Turning to the violence that has been reported during the current constitutional outreach programme, Minister Makone said the police are under instructions not to brook any nonsense if the lives of people are threatened.
She said her office had received some cases of politically instigated violence and the police have acted speedily to bring the culprits to book.
Unfortunately, she said, in other cases, police have failed to identify the perpetrators of violence because they will not have been given the correct place and the names of the victims and perpetrators.
Minister Makone cited the case of the MDC-T member who was abducted by Zanu PF youths in Concession recently during the outreach programme and said she personally went to the area to find out what was going on.
“The police stepped in and the man was later released,” she explained.
In another case of violence in ward 25 of Shamva North district, she said an MDC -T woman was harassed by Zanu PF youths who accused her of submitting a written response to the Copac team instead of speaking in front of everybody else.
“The woman was accused of being an MDC-T supporter and was victimised for that. The police in Bindura came to her rescue and a formal complaint was lodged. The matter is being investigated and the law will take its course, “she said.
Responding to accusations levelled against her for accompanying the Minister of State in the President ‘s Office, Didymus Mutasa to Mbare Police Station to seek the release of his son Martin recently, Minister Makone said was doing her duty as a cabinet minister.
“ I am not at all related to the Mutasas . The Minister is a Nyati and my husband , who is from Chipinge is actually a Hungwe or Shiri. I have known the Mutasas for a long time. Mai Mutasa, a nurse by profession, assisted me when I gave birth to my eldest daughter Taneta at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham where she worked,”
Minister Makone said people must realise that the police do not have jurisdiction of criminal case once offenders have been handed to the courts.
“That becomes the responsibility of the Justice Ministry,” she stressed.
On accusations of corruption and partisan within the police force, the Minister said ,”With a work force of 39 000 people, it would be unthinkable not to get cases of corruption and political allegiances. But the authorities are doing their best to ensure that the police apply the law evenly without political influence.”
Minister Makone said being new in her job, she is still on a familiarisation of the police force, guided by the Police Charter and she is not yet in a position to introduce any changes.
The daily news ZW
2010 07 22
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/headline/mpofu-threatens-to-expose-government-diamond-looters/
Raymond Mhaka on Jul 22nd, 2010 and filed under Main Headline.
BULAWAYO
Mines and Mining Development Minister, Obert Mpofu has threatened to expose top government officials whom he accuses of looting diamonds from the controversial Chiadzwa fields in recent years.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a business conference which is running concurrently with Mining, Engineering and Transport exhibition (Mine Entra) at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Mpofu said there are many top government officials who looted and he would start naming and shaming them soon.
“We have people who are currently holding top positions in government and have been quietly looting diamonds from Chiadzwa without our knowledge. Very soon I will start naming and shaming them” said Mpofu.
Mpofu claims that these are the same people who have been demonising his ministry and also accusing him personally of having looted diamonds from Chiadzwa.
“I am don’t care how powerful they are. These are the same people who have been going around demonising me and my ministry”, he said
Mpofu recently made headlines when he went on a property buying spree in Victoria Falls and Bulawayo which has attracted the interest of a parliamentary committee investigating the looting of diamonds by top government and military officials.
Mpofu’s threat comes a week after the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti revealed that diamonds worth US$ 30 million were plundered in the past few months.
Zimbabwe’s diamonds have always been a source of conflict between the government and the international community over allegations of human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa fields.
Meanwhile, few foreign exhibitors attended the three day Mine Entra exhibition which kicked off in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
The mining exhibition which is running under the theme - Exploring Our Hidden Depths comes at a time when government is threatening to take over all foreign
owned mining companies.
According to a survey carried out by the Daily News at the ZITF grounds, less than half of the expected 10 direct and 15 indirect foreign exhibitors areshowcasing at this year’s event which will be officially opened by Mpofu.
Foreign exhibitors present are mainly from South Africa.
Most of the exhibition space in hall four, the venue of the show has been taken up mainly by small scale miners and safety and footwear manufacturers and suppliers.
Daily News
2010 07 21
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/news/perpetrators-of-violence-share-platform-with-victims/
Dave Fish Eagle on Jul 21st, 2010 and filed under Local News, Main Headline, Politics.
Wednesday 21 July 2010
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Alleged purveyors and victims of violence today assembled for the first time at a historic meeting in Harare when the national executive of the MDC, the Zanu PF politburo and the executive of the political formation led by Professor Arthur Mutambara met to discuss issues of violence and national healing in the country.
The three-hour meeting, convened by the National Organ on Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, was aimed at ensuring that the three political parties adhere to Article Three and Article 18 of the GPA which urge all parties to shun violence and to promote national healing.
The consensus at the meeting was that the leadership of the parties, as represented by the executive organs, must ensure that the environment on the ground is violence-free and that it is conducive to national healing. Delegates agreed that there could be no healing without justice and compensation and that the police must arrest all perpetrators of violence in order to kill the festering culture of impunity that has destabilized peace and compromised security of persons in Zimbabwe.
The delegates agreed on the establishment of an Inter-Party-Organ on Dialogue ( IPOD) where all parties create a platform at provincial, district, ward and village level to deliberate on issues of violence and create the basis for truth-telling and national healing in the country. It was agreed that both the perpetrator and the victim must tell their stories if there is to be proper national healing in the country.
The media, especially the ZBC and the Herald, also came under attack as merchants of hate speech and divisions. The delegates agreed that hate speech and divisive language helped fan the culture of violence and made healing almost impossible.
Addressing the inter-party delegates, MDC secretary-general Hon Tendai Biti said the meeting was historic and created hope for nation-building.
“Zimbabweans are trying to find each other and this meeting is historic and ground-breaking. No nation can develop if it is arrested by the turpitude of violence and intolerance. The challenge is to turn today’s spirit into tangible action on the ground by making sure that no Zimbabwean attacks or kills another Zimbabwean on the basis of political affiliation,” he said.
Professor Welshman Ncube and Zanu PF’s Didymus Mutasa also addressed the delegates.
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MDC Information & Publicity Department
Harvest House
44 Nelson Mandela Ave
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel - 00263 4 793 250
2010 07 21
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/headline/chihuri-demands-apology-from-mliswa/
Dave Fish Eagle on Jul 21st, 2010 and filed under Main Headline.
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Editors Note -
As I suspected, this case has exposed more than the State can contain. I expect a formal apology from Mliswa will be accepted by Chihuri and……… Surprise surprise. !! - The cases will be dropped.
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Harare, July 21, 2010
Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri has demanded an apology from arrested controversial Zanu (PF) member and businessman Temba Mliswa for labelling the police chief corrupt and suggesting that he should be fired from his job.
Impeccable family sources told RadioVOP that this was coming after several concerns from black farmers who benefited from the land reform programme just like Mliswa, said that the move to arrest the former sports personality and charge him with looting would backfire on Zanu (PF).
“There have been several behind the scenes meetings between Chihuri and senior relatives of Mliswa including his uncle Didymus Mutasa and the lawyers to try and strike an out of court settlement. I now understand that Chihuri has since asked for an apology from Mliswa before the cases before the courts can proceed to trial,” said a source close to Mliswa.
The source said high powered delegations have been going to see Chihuri on almost a daily basis.
Mliswa faces numerous fraud charges including allegedly acquiring a motor spares company, Noshio Holdings Company illegally, looting farm equipment and properties and defrauding the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
The police claim that they have more than forty cases on Mliswa which they have been bringing to court in instalments.
“Most of the farmers have said that everyone would be arrested if Mliswa is to be tried and convicted for stealing farming equipment from the former white commercial farmers. The case is now very complicated,” said the source.
Mliswa, who has been denied bail on several occasions would be fit for bail if he is indicted for trial in all the cases that he is facing.
But Mliswa just before his arrest accused Chihuri of conniving with the former owner of the company to incriminate him in a fraud he did not commit.
In a stinging attack on the country’s top police officer, Mliswa said the ‘persecution’ he was suffering would worsen the already bad image of the police whom he alleged was notorious for harassing and torturing people.
Mliswa said he bought 51 percent of Noshio Holdings from one Hammerskjold Banda and left the remainder with Paul Westwood who was now claiming that Mliswa forcibly entered into the company using threats of violence.
“It’s now clear to me that there is something fishy going on between Chihuri and Westwood because the police commissioner has clearly taken sides,” claimed Mliswa before his arrest.
Trouble for Mliswa started soon after his deal with Banda but Westwood maintained that the former fitness coach had forced his way into the company using his Zanu (PF) connections.
Mliswa and Westwood have been fighting since the beginning of the year and two months ago Mliswa was arrested for threatening Westwood with a text message.
After his arrest three weeks ago, together with the son of Mutasa’s son Martin, there was a major fallout between the Minister and Chihuri.
Mutasa and co-minister of home affairs Theresa Makone were on one side while Chihuri was on the other side.
Mutasa and Makone were later accused by the police of interfering with investigations by visiting police stations where Mliswa and Martin were detained, demanding their release.