2010 07 05
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news050710/zimbus050710.htm
SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
By Tichaona Sibanda
5 July 2010
A cheeky campaign putting the country’s elite military junta
under the spotlight in neighbouring South Africa has prompted both giggles and
gasps in and around Johannesburg.
The unusual campaign which has been well received by
Zimbabweans in Johannesburg features a bus embellished with the pictures of the
members of the Joint Operations Command (JOC).
The campaign titled ‘Red Card ZIMafia’ has a football theme-in
line with the 2010 World Cup currently taking place in South Africa. The
campaign, which names and shames JOC members and a ZANU PF clique who are
looting the country’s national resources was launched in Johannesburg last week
Thursday.
Spokesman for the campaign Munjonzi Mutandiri told SW Radio
Africa on Monday that the campaign takes the form of a soccer team, named
Zimbabwe’s Worst Eleven.
Mutandiri said ZIMafia was the “unofficial national team”
whose club motto is “The Looting Continues,” adding that the team members,
portrayed by actors, are the ones who have committed the worst crimes and have
enriched themselves most at the expense of the Zimbabwean population.
Reserve bank governor Gideon Gono is designated as Number 1 in
the team and is also described as the treasurer to the JOC. The team coach is
Robert Mugabe and the rest of the team comprises of top ZANU PF henchmen:
Patrick Chinamasa, Obert Mpofu, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Paradzai Zimondi, Perence
Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga, Johannes Tomana, Happyton Bonyongwe, Augustine
Chihuri and Phillip Sibanda.
The team of actors playing the parts of the ZIMafia eleven
tour on the bus, dubbed the ‘bling bus’, are dressed in soccer kits. The
ZIMafia team is led by ‘Coach Bob’, and performs a satirical interactive play
every day at a different location in the Gauteng area. Audiences are invited to
‘red-card’ the team for cheating and foul play.
“This is a team of people who have robbed Zimbabweans of their
freedom and rights. They have also bankrupted the country, leaving a legacy of
debt that will take generations to repay, while amassing large personal
fortunes,” Mutandiri said.
He said they were also grateful for the support from the South
African authorities and citizens, whose constitution guarantees pro-democracy
activists from Zimbabwe the precious freedom of speech they don’t have back
home.
Mutandiri added that the ‘Red-Card the ZIMafia’ is a campaign
whose main objective is to unmask the perpetrators of violence and corruption
in Zimbabwe. He said it was also to alert the African Union and the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) about the danger posed by this ruthless
clique, to the peace and security of the region.
See pictures (Below)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Meet The Team
2010 07 06
http://www.zimafia.com/meet-the-team/
‘Zimbabwe’s Worst Eleven’: The ZIMafia - the team that
plunders Zimbabwe’s wealth, loots without a license and will kill to keep what
they have stolen.
The star players in the ZIMafia team comprise Zimbabwe’s
illegitimate and unelected Joint Operations Command (JOC) a group of military
and strategic commanders who maintain the oppressive structure set up by Ian
Smith’s racist government 30 years ago under a State of Emergency.
From top left: Patrick Chinamasa, Obert Mpofu, Emmerson
Mnangagwa, Paradzai Zimondi, Perence Shiri, Constantine Chiwenga
From bottom left: Johannes Tomana, Happyton Bonyongwe, Gideon
Gono, Augustine Chihuri, Phillip Sibanda
Today under the leadership of their ‘coach’ and President,
Robert Mugabe, the ZIMafia are still using force to stay in charge of Zimbabwe,
in spite of the existence of a transitional “Global Political Agreement” - aka
a Government of National Unity brokered by SADC.
This Nation-Beating (literally) team are the ‘real’ rulers of
Zimbabwe, the ones who have sworn never to give up power, and the ones who have
committed the worst crimes. All are experts in abduction, intimidation, torture
and political murder.
Now they are in control of a multi-billion dollar diamond
strike with which they are personally enriching themselves while purchasing
arms and ammunition to use against the electorate, or each other - or any other
force that challenges their right to loot in perpetuity.
- Not one of them was elected to office in a free and fair
election.
- None of them are in office today by consent of the people of
Zimbabwe.
- The military commanders are all Zanu-PF party loyalists - in
contravention of the universal and constitutional regulation that national
defence force officers may not be partisan in their professional duties.
- Each of them has sworn never to recognize any other head of
state but Mugabe.
- Every one in this team is under international targeted
sanctions (travel, banking and business sanctions) for gross abuse of human
rights.
The danger this team poses to the sovereignty of the people of
Zimbabwe and the security of the region must not be underestimated.
2010 07 05
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news050710/mutasa050710.htm
SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
By Lance Guma
05 July 2010
The personal nature of the feud pitting Presidential Affairs
Minister Didymus Mutasa against Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri blew out
into the open this week, when Mutasa accused the police force including its
chief of employing brutal Rhodesian tactics to settle personal scores.
Mutasa’s 47 year old son Martin was arrested alongside notorious
ZANU PF activist Themba Mliswa and George Marere last week Monday, after trying
to seize shareholding worth US$ 1 million from a company owned by white
businessman Paul Westwood. Mutasa, in the company of new MDC-T co-Home Affairs
Minister Theresa Makone, is said to have tried to intimidate police into
releasing his son.
Speaking to the Daily News online edition, Mutasa said Chihuri
and his officers were abusing the state apparatus to harass his son Martin and
nephew Mliswa. The Minister claimed that the dispute over the company shares
was a civil matter. “It looks like we are back to Rhodesia where Ian Smith used
a similar law to abuse innocent people. Look, this is a clear civil matter
which has been criminalized by some top police officers to pursue personal
interests.’
Mutasa also claimed Chihuri had an interest in the company
that was at the centre of the dispute. Although Martin and his colleagues were
granted US$ 400 bail each, the state invoked the notorious Section 121 of the
“Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act” to keep them locked up for another seven
days. This further infuriated Mutasa who said: “That section must be there for
correct usage not this kind of behaviour. Even if it was not my son involved I
would have complained.”
By “correct usage” Mutasa probably meant that the law must be
used only on perceived opponents of the ZANU PF regime. The same section of the
law has been used countless times to keep activists locked up even when bail
has been granted by the courts. Mutasa needs no reminding that the filthy
conditions in the holding cells where his son is being kept are the very same
conditions that people opposed to his ZANU PF regime are kept.
So how did MDC-T co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone
become embroiled in all this ?.
“Minister Makone happened to be there and she was concerned
that police machinery was now being used to fight business wars. She went to
the police station on her own to find out exactly how this so called top person
was trying to abuse the system. Actually, when I went to the police station I
found her already there,” Mutasa claimed.
“She never demanded the release of anybody. I also never did
that. All I did was to encourage the police to take my son and Mliswa to court
and not to keep detaining them in a filthy police station over a civil matter.
In this cold, they were sleeping without blankets and half naked,” charged
Mutasa. Other reports say the two ministers are related.
Political commentator Sanderson Makombe expressed shock at the
involvement of Makone in the whole saga. Makombe, who survived a ZANU PF
assassination attempt in the 2000 parliamentary elections, said he never
thought he would see the day an MDC Minister tried to help secure the release
of a ZANU PF minister’s son from prison. Both Ministers erred in visiting the
police station to make their complaints because they would only meet junior
officers there and this in turn would be viewed as intimidation Makombe said.
2010 07 04
http://www.zimbabwemetro.com/politics/mutasa-accuses-chihuri-of-employing-rhodesian-tactics/
Dave Fish Eagle on Jul 4th, 2010 and filed under Politics.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Editors note:
I find this story enthralling. We have a Zanu heavyweight
accusing another Zanu heavyweight of employing tactics against him that they
have all used for the last 15 years against any opposition to their Hegemony.
Be it povo, business, political opponents etc, etc, etc. I
await developments with “extreme” interest. !!!
(Editor)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARARE
Zanu PF heavyweight and presidential affairs minister, Didymus
Mutasa has slammed the police and made pointed remarks against police
CommissionerGeneral Augustine Chihuri that he was employing brutal Rhodesian
tactics, abusing the penal system to settle personal scores.
Mutasa, a very close confidante of President Robert Mugabe,
said the police were abusing state apparatus to harass his son Martin Mutasa
and his nephew Temba Mliswa who are both behind bars for alleged fraud
committed in the acquisition of a vehicles repairs company- Noshio Motors.
In the aftermath of the arrest and then invoking of the
draconian Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act - after Mliswa
and Martin were granted bail by the magistrates’ court - there was major
fallout between Mutasa and co-minister of home affairs Theresa Makone on one
side and Chihuri on the other side.
Mutasa and Makone were accused by the police of interfering
with investigations by visiting police stations where Mliswa and Martin were
detained, demanding their release. Police accused Mutasa and co-Home Affairs
Minister Theresa Makoni of interfering with due process claiming the two had
visited three police stations in Mbare and allegedly sought to have Mutasa’s
son, Martin released from custody.
Martin, 47, and Mliswa - a nephew of Mutasa - were arrested on
allegations of swindling a Harare businessman of shares worth US$ 1 million.
The two have since appeared in court where they were given US$
400 bail but remain in custody after the state indicated intentions to appeal
the decision.
However before they appeared in court Mutasa is said to have
visited Mbare, Stoddart and Matapi police stations demanding their release in a
development that precipitated an unusual censure from the police. Zimbabwe
Reporter understands Mliswa has been seized from the Harare Remand Prison where
he was held and taken to Mbare Police Station where he is held by CID Homicide
detectives. Police want to prefer a further charge of murder against Mliswa,
dating back to 2000 when a mob allegedly sent by Mliswa murdered a white
commercial farmer. Speaking from Mbare police cells on Saturday night, Mliswa
accused Chihuri of abusing the law to punish him after he accused him of being
corrupt. Mliswa also rubbished police complaints that the two ministers had
attempted to get him out of custody.
“The (ZRP) views seriously the behaviour of the two ministers
which sought to interfere with police work, particularly as the ministers
sought to protect accused person facing charges of wantonly seizing property outside
the law and threatening others,” police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said.
However Mutasa said the police were “saying nonsense”
insisting he only wanted to know why his son had been arrested.
“What the police are saying is nonsense. As a father I have
the right to visit my son, especially when he has been arrested.
“I also have the right as a minister to visit any person who
has been arrested in this country. And as a citizen I have the right to go
where I want,” Mutasa told the state-owned Herald newspaper.
He also condemned the state of the police cells claiming they
were worse than those used to hold freedom fighters prior to independence.
“He (Martin) was in a cell without any warm clothes in this
cold weather,” he said.
However police said they were standing by their story.
“We are standing by what we said, (but) we can’t be talking
about charges as of now. We are just stating the position of the law,”
Bvudzijena said.
Mutasa told The Daily News that the dispute that resulted in
his son’s arrest was a civil case involving a dispute between Mliswa and a
businessman named Paul Westwood who reportedly has the backing of Chihuri.
“It looks like we are back to Rhodesia where Ian Smith used a
similar law to abuse innocent people. Look, this is a clear civil matter which
has been criminalised by some top police officers to pursue personal
interests,” he said in the interview.
“Chihuri and Temba (Mliswa) are arguing over a private
company. But we are seeing a situation where state apparatus are being used to
fight a personal issue. Why don’t they fight outside the state apparatus?”
questioned Mutasa.
Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, keeps
suspects in jail for seven days even after being granted bail and has been
mainly used on human rights defenders and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
officials.
“That section must be there for correct usage not this kind of
behaviour. Even if it was not my son involved I would have complained.
“They are now using it on a dispute between people in
business. Is there any national interest in the case ?.
Isn’t it a shame that we are borrowing Rhodesian tactics and
using them on innocent people ?.
If they are able to treat my son like this what more of the ordinary
people,” Mutasa said.
Mutasa denied that he demanded the release of his son and
Mliswa saying he questioned the police on their continued detention and why
they had been arrested.
He said officers from CID Homicide section, who had arrested
his son and Mliswa, told him that the orders to arrest them had come from the
“top.”
“I went to see the co-minister of home affairs Mohadi (Kembo)
and I was explaining to him that his police were abusing the system to settle
civil and personal disputes.
“Minister Makone happened to be there and she was concerned
that police machinery was now being used to fight business wars. She went to
the police station on her own to find out exactly how this so called top person
was trying to abuse the system. Actually, when I went to the police station I
found her already there.
“She never demanded the release of anybody. I also never did
that. All I did was to encourage the police to take my son and Mliswa to court
and not to keep detaining them in a filthy police station over a civil matter.
In this cold, they were sleeping without blankets and half naked,” charged
Mutasa.
The case now turned political that Mugabe is expected to
intervene to stop the crisis from escalating.
Before he was arrested Mliswa had said he bought 50 percent of
Noshio Motors from one Hammerskjold Banda and left the remainder with Westwood
who is now claiming that Mliswa fraudulently acquired the shares.
2010 07 06
http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-07-06-mutasa-threatens-cops-with-arrest
KELVIN JAKACHIRA
Jul 06 2010 09:09
Zanu PF stalwart and controversial Minister of State for
Presidential Affairs in the President’s Office, Didymus Mutasa, has allegedly
threatened to cause the arrest and detention of police officers who dare assist
besieged white commercial farmers in reclaiming their properties.
Allegations against Mutasa come at a time the politburo member
is frantically fending off accusations that together with co-Minister of Home
Affairs, Theresa Makone, he tried to influence the police to release his son
and nephew from lawful custody.
The politburo is Zanu PF’s supreme-decision making body
outside congress.
Mutasa denied trying to coerce the police to release his son,
Martin and controversial businessman,
Temba Mliswa, from custody following their arrest on charges
of fraud and extortion when they allegedly tried to wrest a motor vehicle
company from the owner.
According to court papers, Mutasa allegedly threatened that
any police officer who assisted white commercial farmers would be arrested and
locked up.
Keys to the holding cells, Mutasa is alleged to have said,
would be handed to Deputy Commissioner General of Police, Godwin Matanga.
The allegations are contained in a High Court application
filed by Chipinge farmer, Trevor Gifford who is challenging eviction from his
farm house. Mutasa, the Zanu PF politburo secretary for administration,
yesterday said.
2010 07 05
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5557.html
05 July, 2010 10:10:00
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Mliswa’s arrest has caused a storm in government with two
ministers Makone and Mutasa coming under attack from police.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Harare
Incarcerated Zanu (PF) official and businessman, Temba Mliswa
was snatched from remand prison by police officers from the feared CID Homicide
section on Friday evening and interrogated on a number of fresh accusations
before being detained at Mbare Police Station.
Mliswa was on Thursday granted bail in a case he is accused of
fraudulently acquiring shares from a vehicles repairs company but the state
evoked the notorious Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act,
which suspended the ruling by the magistrate.
He is therefore supposed to stay in remand prison for seven
days while the state considers appealing against the granting of bail.
Just a day after he was sent to remand prison and in typical
style, police went to prison in darkness and took Mliswa away saying they
wanted to interrogate him on fresh charges.
Mliswa’s arrest has caused a storm in government with two
ministers Theresa Makone and Didymus Mutasa coming under attack from police who
are accusing the duo of intimidating them to release Mliswa who is also a
nephew of Mutasa.
The former fitness trainer claims he is being victimised by
police commissioner Augustine Chihuri whom he says is corruptly conniving with
one Paul Westwood who owns 50 percent shares in the disputed Noshio Motors
Company.
Mliswa is accused of fraudulently acquiring the other 50
percent stake in the company and according to court papers, he bought the
shares from Hammerskjold Banda who was in partnership with Westwood.
Westwood, believed to be a close associate of Chihuri, is now
arguing that Mliswa’s acquisition of the shares from Banda was fraudulently
done and reported the matter to the police.
Said a close family member of Mliswa: “Police went to the
remand prison and took him away for further questioning. Actually it turns out
that they want to press more charges with the intention of making sure he
suffers in jail all for linking Chihuri with corruption.
“They are now looking at the violence that happened during the
farm invasions and other makeshift cases. He was questioned for long periods
over different cases and was detained at Mbare Police Station.
“These Zanu PF people are now realising that these draconian
laws can also be used against them. They now understand how brutal the regime
is.”
Mutasa has meanwhile furiously refuted reports that he wanted
to influence police officers to release Mliswa saying he only went there to see
his son - Martin Mutasa - who was also arrested together with Mliswa.
Mutasa is arguing that Chihuri is abusing the system and his powers
to pursue a personal civil matter through criminalising a civil matter.
He said police were now using the same tactics used by Ian
Smith to brutalise freedom fighters. - RadioVOP
2010 07 06
http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-07-06-mliswa-released-but-told-to-shut-up
CHARLES LAITON
Jul 06 2010 09:35
Outspoken businessman and farmer Temba Mliswa and co-accused,
minister Didymus Mutasa’s son Martin and George Marere, were yesterday set free
after the state said it was no longer opposed to their bail application.
Mliswa, Mutasa and Marere were arrested a week ago on
allegations of fraud or alternatively, extortion.
They spent three days in police cells and another four in
remand prison.
Defence lawyer Charles Chinyama approached the magistrates’
court yesterday armed with written instructions from the Attorney General
(AG)’s office saying the state was no longer interested in opposing bail.
The trio had been granted $ 400 bail each last Thursday, but
the state invoked Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act which
nullified the magistrate’s decision and gave the state up to seven days to
appeal.
Chinyama entered court during proceedings and handed over the
instructions to prosecutor Phyllis Zvenyika, who in turn informed magistrate
Gloria Takundwa.
He immediately endorsed the previous bail order and the
special extra condition recommended by the AG that the accused must not speak
to the press.
Prosecutor Zvenyika said:
“I have received instructions from the Chief Law Officer Chris
Mutangadura to the effect that the state shall no longer proceed to file an
appeal against the granting of bail to the accused.
“However, the state intends to add one bail condition. The
accused persons shall be barred from talking to the press on any matters
pending before the courts.”
However, in the infancy of the case and while Mliswa, Mutasa
and Marere were in police custody, minister Didymus Mutasa and co-Home Affairs
minister Theresa Makone reportedly attempted to influence the release of the
accused persons. Ministers Mutasa and Makone have since denied reports of their
alleged interference.
Mutangadura said in an interview yesterday his office had
discussed the matter with the defence lawyers and agreed to set the accused
free on the additional bail condition.
According to court papers, Mliswa alleged that he had orders
from Saviour Kasukuwere, the Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and
Empowerment, to take over Noshio Investment (Private) Limited. In the court
papers, Mliswa claimed President Mugabe was aware of his intended actions.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5565.html
06 July, 2010 10:31:00 By
Temba Mliswa and Martin Mutasa
Harare
Troubled Zanu (PF) official and businessman Temba Mliswa
tasted freedom for a few minutes before he was arrested again by police from
the dreaded CID Homicide Section and is being investigated for an alleged fraud
committed in 2005.
The never ending Mliswa saga is taking twists and turns amid
revelations police commissioner Augustine Chihuri is out to fix the controversial
politician over a vehicle repairs company deal which went sour.
Mliswa, who at the weekend attacked Chihuri accusing him of
being corrupt, is locked in a shareholding dispute with businessman Paul
Westwood over Noshio Motors.
Mliswa says Chihuri is corruptly involved with Westwood and
wants to keep him incarcerated for as long as possible.
Last week, Mliswa was granted bail by a magistrate court but
the state invoked the draconian Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act which was supposed to keep him in remand prison for at least seven
days while the state considered appealing.
But the Attorney General's office decided against appealing
meaning Mliswa had to be released but the police moved in to arrest him at
Harare remand prison soon after he had returned from Mbare police station where
he had been detained since Friday after being snatched by police from prison.
A family member who spoke to Radio VOP on Monday said Mliswa
is being held at Rhodesville police station.
"The state felt the case was more of a civil matter than
criminal and decided against appealing meaning Temba had to be released. All
the documentation had been done and he was on his way home when police swiftly
moved in to arrest him.
"It's not clear what charge he is facing this time but we
understand that they were questioning him in connection with a fraud they said
he masterminded in 2005 and it involves Wedzera Service Station at his farm.
"When they seized him from prison on Friday, they tried
to link him with a homicide crime but failed. We are being told that they are
getting orders from Chihuri to make sure he stays detained as long as possible.
It's now becoming ridiculous and laughable. We now understand why human rights
groups complain so much about individuals in the police who abuse their
power," said the Mliswa family member.
Mliswa's case has torched a storm in government with police
last week accusing the minister of presidential affairs Didymus Mutasa and
co-minister of home affairs Theresa Makone of trying to intimidate officers to
release Mliswa and his co-accused Martin Mutasa who is minister Mutasa's son.
But Mutasa his furiously hit back accusing Chihuri of using
state apparatus to pursue personal issues and likened such abuse of office as
that witnessed in Rhodesia.
Makone is said to have gone to the police station where the
three were detained to investigate claims that Chihuri was indeed pursuing a
personal matter using police. She was wanted to get the side of the suspects.
-Radio VOP
2010 07 05
The matter has apparently divided the MDC formation led by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with some saying Makone should be disciplined
for teaming up with Mutasa on their round of police stations
Sandra Nyaira
Washington 05 July 2010
Zimbabwean Co-Minister of Home Affairs Theresa Makone has
dismissed police claims she tried to obstruct justice by demanding the release
of three men accused of trying to shake down a white businessman for corporate
equity.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said late last week that
Minister of State for Security Didymus Mutasa, who is attached to the office of
President Robert Mugabe, visited two police stations in Harare with Makone
demanding the release of his son, Martin, arrested with businessman Temba
Mliswa and George Marere.
Makone told VOA Studio 7 reporter Sandra Nyaira that she
visited the police stations but insisted allegations she tried to obstruct
justice are false. Makone added in an interview that she intends to do her job
credibly to make sure all Zimbabweans are treated fairly by police regardless
of party affiliation or their station in life.
Martin Mutasa and the other two men are accused of
misrepresenting to businessman Paul Westwood that President Mugabe and Youth,
Indigenization and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere had authorized them
to take a 50 percent equity stake in his company, Noshio Investments Limited.
Didymus Mutasa has also dismissed the police accusations as
"nonsense."
The matter has apparently divided the MDC formation led by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with some saying Makone should be disciplined
for teaming up with Mutasa on their round of police stations.
2010 07 06
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5563.html
06 July, 2010 12:28:00
Makone said she visited the police stations but insisted
allegations she tried to obstruct justice are false.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Harare
Zimbabwean Co-Minister of Home Affairs Theresa Makone has
dismissed police claims she tried to obstruct justice by demanding the release
of three men accused of trying to shake down a white businessman for corporate
equity.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said late last week that
Minister of Presidential Affairs Didymus Mutasa, who is attached to the office
of President Robert Mugabe, visited two police stations in Harare with Makone
demanding the release of his son, Martin, arrested with businessman Temba
Mliswa and George Marere.
Makone said she visited the police stations but insisted
allegations she tried to obstruct justice are false.
Makone added in an interview that she intends to do her job
credibly to make sure all Zimbabweans are treated fairly by police regardless
of party affiliation or their station in life.
"I'm a hands-on person and I'll not delegate Zanu PF
officials in the Home Affairs Ministry to get the job done."
"My job will be to see to it that police are carrying out
justice accordingly and not sitting in the office waiting for reports from Zanu
PF Police officers."
She went on to warn Senior Police officers abusing their
positions, and said she would not be shaken by cheap propaganda.
Martin Mutasa and the other two men are accused of
misrepresenting to businessman Paul Westwood that President Mugabe and Youth,
Indigenization and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere had authorized them
to take a 50 percent equity stake in his company, Noshio Investments Limited.
Didymus Mutasa has also dismissed the police accusations as
"nonsense."
The matter has apparently divided the MDC formation led by
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with some saying Makone should be disciplined
for teaming up with Mutasa on their round of police stations.
2010 07 05
Written by Tsungai Murandu
Monday, 05 July 2010 16:09
Harare
The United Nations will next week launch a mid-year review of
humanitarian appeals for countries in distress amid revelations that only a
third of Zimbabwe’s consolidated appeal for 2010 has been met by donors.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA) said the review, which takes place on July 14 at the world body’s New
York headquarters was part of a process in which humanitarian aid organisations
working in protracted humanitarian crises come together to revise their
response plans in support of affected countries’ relief programmes. “The review
also serves to highlight remaining priorities in countries and regions with a
consolidated appeal and aims to promote accountability and resource
mobilisation,” said OCHA.
Zimbabwe’s 2010 humanitarian appeal has received few takers,
with US$ 162 million or just 34 percent of the US$ 478 million asked for so far
funded by donors. The lukewarm support prompted the UN humanitarian wing to
issue a passionate plea for assistance in March, urging vigilance among the
donor community to avoid a relapse of Zimbabwe’s situation to the problems
triggered by the decade-long collapse of the country’s social services.
Zimbabwe has been plagued by widespread humanitarian suffering
in recent years, driven in part by long-running political strife.
When the appeal was launched in December 2009, some six
million people in the country did not have access to safe water and sanitation
due to the erosion of basic services. Livelihoods were also threatened by a
prolonged economic downturn. The humanitarian crisis has since worsened, with
outbreaks of measles, cholera and typhoid reported in parts of the country.
2010 07 05
Written by Fungi Kwaramba
Monday, 05 July 2010 15:38
Harare
A splinter group of war veterans led by Retired Colonel Basten
Beta has demanded Zanu (PF) leaders to stop hiding behind sanctions as the
cause of the country’s economic woes and take responsibility for the ruin that
has been caused by factionalism, racism, tribalism greed and corruption.
The veterans association, which uses the same name with the
main group, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA),
said in a statement that post war leadership continued to betray the values of
the armed struggle. Said the (ZNLWA), "Government, the Reserve Bank and
state enterprises are run like private businesses with ministers and the RBZ
Governor becoming the richest men in the country.
"The leadership should stop using sanctions as the only
cause for the economic collapse. There are other causes which are corruption,
failed monetary and fiscal policies and lack of accountability.” The war
veterans said while a few individuals were enjoying the fruits of the
liberation struggle which led to Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, most war
veterans were living in abject poverty. They said those who had been injured in
line of duty had been totally forgotten. "Retired veterans who took part
in combat operations remain homeless, sleeping on the streets and in cardboard boxes
every night. These veterans are being buried in pauper graves without
recognition or honour,” they said.
The association also took a swipe at the two factions of war
veterans that were led by Jabulani Sibanda and Joseph Chinotimba saying
"fake war veterans (who are) protecting corruption and non accountability
now also want their term in office uninterrupted”.
"The so called war veterans fiasco and division is a
deliberate attempt to polarise the nation and so destabilise the country,
polarise former ZANLA and ZIPRA fighters to achieve divide and rule policy.
Zimbabwe is not at war but is in danger of a complete economic meltdown. What
legacy is this leadership going to live behind where the corrupt are
untouchable?”
2010 07 05
Written by Tony Saxon
Monday, 05 July 2010 15:15
Harare
A second edition of a book by the former Reserve Bank governor
Leonard Tsumba, which talks about how the Zimbabwean economy can be revived, is
due to be released this month.
The book advocates the restructuring of the Reserve Bank to
save Zimbabwe’s economy and has been described as a ‘must read’.
In the book Tsumba concludes that a Reserve Bank must know the
limits of its powers. Unless it does so, it undermines itself as a vehicle of
economic stability. Tsumba was the second Governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe. He held that post for 10 years after serving a similar amount of
years as the General Manager and Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank.
“This book is a must read for anyone interested in Zimbabwe.
There should be a copy in every university and school library and on the
shelves of every reading household. The book will be in most bookstores around
the world and available for purchasing through the Internet. We invite advance
purchase for the book,” said The Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa (CPIA)
executive chairperson Dr Leonard Kapungu. Kapungu’s organisation will publish
the book, which is a second edition titled The Restructuring and Reform of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Kapungu, a former conflict chief negotiator in the United
Nations for 10 years said CPIA was always keeping its hand on the pulse of the
Zimbabwe nation. “We are aware that there are immediate issues that confront
our nation, that of economic recovery, we are therefore publishing the second
edition of our book on The Restructuring and Reform of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe by our Eminent Person, Dr. Leonard Tsumba,” he said. Kapungu said the
CPIA has realised that economic recovery was imperative for Zimbabwe.
“As an organisation we have decided to continue to proffer
solutions on the way forward for the nation to be great once again. After we
published the first edition of the book in April 2009, we requested Dr Tsumba
to prepare the second edition. The economy of Zimbabwe had tumbled,” he said.
He lamented that Zimbabwe, once the bread basket of Southern Africa, found
itself importing food from inter alia Malawi and Zambia, the countries it had
led when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was created in 1953-1960.
“By that, where do we begin with the rescue measures ?.
It is the view of Dr Tsumba that the beginning of recovery
after a calm political environment has been established begins with the
restructuring of the Reserve Bank. Whether we like it or not, we as a nation
cannot do without a Central Bank. “We are reminded that when the American Revolution
had succeeded there were some who thought a central bank would undermine the
fruits of the revolution others thought it could be used as a political weapon
but in the end there was consensus that America could not be a great nation
unless it had a well structured central bank.
“True to Zimbabwe we cannot achieve our economic recovery
without a well run Reserve Bank. Like in any other country that goes through
economic traumas and political upheavals the Reserve Bank has been called
rightly or wrongly to step in and attempt to rescue the nation,” said Kapungu.
Kapungu believes that the imperative solution for Zimbabwe is Economic
Recovery. “Some of our colleagues seem to believe that the imperatives are a
new constitution and elections. How easy would it be to write a new
constitution and how enjoyable would it be campaigning for elections if our
nation was enjoying economic stability,” he said.
2010 07 05
Written by Mkhululi Chimoio
Monday, 05 July 2010 15:17
JOHANNESBURG
South African based ZAPU youth administrator, Cannacious
Nkala, has applauded Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (Pictured) for
redeploying deputy youth Minister Thamsanqa Mahlangu.
Speaking to the ZIMBABWEAN this week, Nkala said he was
greatly pleased with Tsvangirai's move as Mahlangu failed them and had always
shunned youth. "We are very happy with Mahlangu's redeployment because
when he used to visit South Africa he only addressed MDC-T youth at government
expense.
"We have been seen Zanu (PF) failing us and no one is
re-called. Our prime minister now is on track." "We are not going to
disrupt or challenge whoever is brought in. What we want to see are ministers
who include all youth from Zimbabwe in their systems. Tsvangirai in the last
few weeks redeployed some of his Ministers, which saw Mahlangu losing his
deputy ministerial post.
Four ministers who were recalled to the party and will no
longer be carrying out government business are Elias Mudzuri, formerly Minister
of Energy and Power Development, former Housing and Social Amenities portfolio
Minister Fidelis Mhashu, Evelyn Masaiti formerly Deputy Minister of Women's
Affairs, Gender and Community Affairs as well as Mahlangu formerly deputy minister
of Youth Development.
Prime Minister Tsvangirai told journalists in Harare that he
was making the changes so that he can balance the needs of both the government
and the party.
2010 07 05
Written by STEVEN NYATHI
Monday, 05 July 2010 14:20
BULAWAYO
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has expressed concern at
the reluctance by players in the sector to take part in the national tourism
awards set for September.
The poor response to send in nominations has prompted ZTA to
continually extend the deadline for nominations to the end of the month. ZTA
spokesperson, Sugar Chagonda, urged the public to nominate for the various
categories ranging from Accommodation, Car Hire, Travel and Tour operators and
Airlines among others. The awards will be held on the eve of World Tourism Day
on September 27.
“Nominations are critical to the entire process if we are to
uphold the principles of fairness, equal opportunities and transparency,
important aspects underlying the awards process. The deadline for nomination is
now 31 July 2010 and we encourage the people to take advantage of this
extension,” he said. Chagonda said the awards, which are meant to recognise
excellence, are held annually with the ultimate aim of promoting healthy
competition within the industry for sustainable development in the tourism
sector.
“This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the World Tourism Day
celebrations and we are proud to continue raising awareness on the role of
tourism in the country as well as at international levels. “The Day is
important because it gives a platform to the tourism industry to demonstrate
the Impact of Tourism in the social, cultural, political and economic values
worlds wide,” said Chagonda. This year’s main World Tourism Day celebrations
will be held in China (Guangdong Province), where all the countries are
expected to converge.
2010 07 05
Written by Mxolisi Ncube
Monday, 05 July 2010 14:11
JOHANNESBURG
A renowned regional business executive has urged international
investors to take advantage of Zimbabwe’s troubled political situation to
establish their businesses in the Southern African country. (Pictured: David
Robbetze says companies that invest n Zimbabwe at this time of political
uncertainty will reap the rewards when things get normal)
Africa Investor, an African think-tank, said last week that
Zimbabwe ranked among strife-torn countries like the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), Somalia and Sudan, considered uninviting to investors.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the South
Africa-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce David Robbetze, said this was the most
opportune time for investors to delve into the Zimbabwean markets.
Robbetze told ***The Zimbabwean*** in Johannesburg on the
sidelines of the Festival of Africa Investor Conference, organised by the
Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA), that companies that
invested in Zimbabwe at this time of political uncertainty would reap the
rewards when things get normal.
“Companies should go into Zimbabwe now and establish their
brands, relations and get a better understanding of business concerns in
Zimbabwe,” said Robbetze.
“Their first port of call should be to talk to the government
and establish ground rules, get an understanding of all the requirements and
take business decisions based on the risks involved, as different companies
have different risks.”
Robbetze said there were several opportunities for foreign
investors in the Zimbabwean market, among them the historical economic
backbones of mining, tourism and agriculture, which he said carried a lot of
potential.
“Companies should also consider Zimbabwe as a gateway to other
Southern and East African countries like Malawi, Zambia, South Africa and
Congo.
While conceding that Zimbabwe’s controversial Indigenisation
law was scaring away some investors, Robbetze said that companies wishing to
invest in the country should engage the government and establish for themselves
the requirements of the law and how it can be incorporated into their
companies.
He however, said that the requirement for companies to cede 51
per cent of their ownership to Zimbabweans would not a viable option for some
businesses and would not work if imposed as a blanket requirement.
“Many countries in Africa tried that and failed dismally so
the Zimbabwean government should put in place viable requirements for the law
and outline different percentages for different types of companies,” added
Robbetze.
He said the different signals being transmitted by politicians
within the country’s national unity government were adding to investor
uncertainty.
“The land issue is a very unique African issue and needs to be
handled with transparency. The law should be quite clear and the Zimbabwean
government should explain the rules of engagement with investors when it comes
to agriculture.”
The business executive expressed satisfaction at what he
termed increased engagement with Harare by the post Thabo Mbeki South African
government and hoped that this would continue. He said that the announcement of
Zimbabwe’s next election dates would see a scramble for investment in the
country.
2010 07 05
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5561.html
05 July, 2010 11:07:00 IDN -InDepth News Analysis
The EU has announced its intention to decide a further
allocation of 20 million Euros for improving food security, social sector and
governance in Zimbabwe.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
BRUSSELS
Top-ranking leaders of the European Commission have told
Zimbabwe that they expect "further concrete progress" and "clear
signs of improved political environment", given which the country might
receive additional money.
The 27-nation European Union (EU) has provided the landlocked
country in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi
and Limpopo rivers, 180 million Euros for health, education, food security and
governance.
This money has been made available in recognition of the
creation of the Unity Government early 2009 after the EU succeeded in
persuading President Robert Mugabe to sign a power sharing agreement with his
arch rival M. Tsvangirai.
The EU has announced its intention to decide a further
allocation of 20 million Euros for improving food security, social sector and
governance in Zimbabwe.
This was pointed out by the High Representative of the EU for
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice President of the European
Commission, Catherine Ashton, and Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs,
in a meeting on July 2, 2010 with a high-level ministerial delegation from the
Zimbabwean Government .
The meeting took place within the framework of the Political
Dialogue, as envisaged in the Cotonou Agreement, which was re-launched in June
2009 as an instrument of what may be called Soft Power in contradistinction to
'hard power', which is the use of coercion.
Catherine Ashton said after the meeting: "The EU
appreciates some progress made implementing the Global Political Agreement in
Zimbabwe and remains ready to continue the dialogue and to respond flexibly and
positively to any clear signals of further concrete progress."
Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs added:
"Despite the political issues, the Commission continues to provide direct
aid for health, education, food security and governance to the people of
Zimbabwe. I want to make clear that the Commission remains committed to provide
further assistance based on continued progress and clear signs of improved
political environment in Zimbabwe."
According to sources close to the EU Commission, executive arm
of the EU, both sides underlined their wish to move the political dialogue
forward. "They engaged in open and constructive discussions with the
ultimate objective of progressing towards normalising relations between the
European Union and Zimbabwe."
It was also agreed to intensify the dialogue in Harare,
capital city of Zimbabwe. "The mandated parties in Harare are tasked with
defining the indicators, setting the timetable for the achievement of concrete
objectives based on their respective roadmaps of commitments, and monitoring
the progress," the EU Commission said.
"The EU took note of the progress made so far in the
implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which is a power sharing
agreement signed between M. Tsvangirai (MDC T), Mutambara (MDC M) and R. Mugabe
(ZANU PF) in November 2008," it added.
The Agreement foresees a number of political and economic
reforms and led to the creation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) in
February 2009.During the discussions in Brussels, particular attention was paid
to constitutional and security reforms.
The Delegation from Zimbabwe included Mr Elton Mangoma,
Minister of Energy and Power Development, Mr Patrick A. Chinamasa, Minister of
Justice and Legal Affairs and Ms Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, Minister of
Regional Integration and International Cooperation representing the three
political parties of the Zimbabwean Government of National Unity - MDC-T, ZANU-PF
and MDC-M.
'SOFT POWER'
The EU-Zimbabwe political dialogue started in June 2009 with a
Ministerial troika meeting in Brussels and continued in September with an EU
Troika's visit to Harare. Since then, the dialogue was carried out in Harare.
EU's objective is to normalize relations (including lifting of Art. 96 of the
Cotonou Agreement and restrictive measures) alongside with tangible progress in
the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.
Since 2002, "appropriate measures" under Article 96
of the Cotonou Agreement apply to Zimbabwe and prohibit government to
government cooperation. Zimbabwe is also subject to EU's Common Foreign and
Security Policy (CFSP) "restrictive measures" mainly consisting of
arms embargo, a visa ban and freeze of assets of targeted individuals and
entities.
These measures have been put in place in response of violation
of human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law. Renewal of both
measures is done on an annual basis but reassessment is possible at any moment.
In February 2010 the EU adapted and extended for another year
the 'appropriate' and 'targeted measures' as progress in the GPA implementation
was considered insufficient.
'KIMBERLEY PROCESS'
Meanwhile, the European Union has urged Kimberley Process (KP)
participants and Zimbabwe to intensify their efforts to find consensus on
further actions to bring mining operations in Zimbabwe's Marange diamond fields
in compliance with minimum standards. The appeal comes after the meeting June
21-24 did not produce results.
The meeting held in Tel Aviv (Israel) focused in particular on
the implementation of KP minimum standards in Marange diamond fields, with the
aim to reach a consensus on the way forward. The EU now hopes that participants
in the KP - the international scheme against conflict diamonds - and Zimbabwe
"will intensify their efforts in order to find this consensus, in the
spirit of dialogue and cooperation that has always presided over the Kimberley
Process".
In a briefing note on June 29, 2010, the EU said it regrets
the current impasse which undermines the Kimberley Process, the credibility of
governance in Zimbabwe and the reputation of the legitimate international
diamond industry.
The EU also calls on Zimbabwe to maintain a firm commitment to
the Kimberley Process and to pursue vigorously all necessary actions to bring
all mining operations in the Marange fields into full compliance with KP
requirements.
The EU also expressed concern that the arrest of NGO
representative Farai Maguwu in Zimbabwe following the meeting with the KP
Monitor had overshadowed the meeting in Tel Aviv and called for Zimbabwe to
confirm its commitment to the role of civil society in the Kimberley Process.
The Kimberley Process grew out of discussions in May 2000 in
Kimberley, South Africa, among interested governments, the international
diamond industry and civil society, as a unique initiative to combat 'conflict
diamonds' - rough diamonds used to finance devastating conflicts in some of
Africa's diamond-producing countries. (IDN-InDepthNews/05.07.2010)
2010 07 05
Written by Staff reporter/ZimOnline/SW Radio
Monday, 05 July 2010 15:40
Harare
Talks between Zimbabwe and the European Union in Brussels on
Friday failed to come up with any major breakthroughs with the EU calling for
“concrete progress” in meeting long delayed political and human rights reforms.
(Pictured: Elton Mangoma, one of the three ministers who attended the
EU/Zimbabwe talks)
Zimbabwean ministers Elton Mangoma, Patrick Chinamasa and
Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, travelled to the Belgian capital last Thursday
for the talks after getting an invitation from the EU last month. EU foreign
affairs chief Catherine Ashton and Development Commissioner Andris Pielbags met
with the ministers representing three political parties from Harare's
power-sharing government. "The EU appreciates some progress made
implementing the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe," Ashton said in a
statement, referring to the February 2009 power-sharing deal between President
Robert Mugabe and his former rival Morgan Tsvangirai.
The two sides held "open and constructive discussions
with the ultimate objective of progressing towards normalising relations
between the European Union and Zimbabwe," the EU said in a statement.
"It was also agreed to intensify the dialogue in Harare," it said.
Meanwhile Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Chinamasa was detained for almost
three hours at Germany’s Munich airport on Thursday when he was on his way to
attend the talks.
Chinamasa had to be cleared by Germany authorities to proceed
to Belgium. A source in Brussels told SW Radio Africa that immigration
officials in Munich were not expecting Chinamasa to pass through the city,
following a glitch with the route their plane took. Initially the three
ministers were expected to change planes in Frankfurt after flying from
Johannesburg. Authorities in Frankfurt knew of Chinamasa’s arrival and he had
already been cleared to proceed to Brussels. The Justice Minister is on a
travel ban of EU countries and needed a special dispensation from the EU to
travel to Brussels.
Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) was hoping to use talks with the EU to push
for lifting of the sanctions although observers ruled out the possibility of
Brussels scrapping the punitive measures until its calls for more political and
democratic reforms in Zimbabwe are heeded. Working against Mugabe’s favour was
last month’s invasion of three farms in the eastern Manicaland region which are
owned by a German national.
The Germany embassy issued a letter last Wednesday to the
Zimbabwean government expressing displeasure at Harare’s “tolerance” of the
occupation of Makandi Tea Estate and Coffee (Pvt) Limited, Border Timbers
Limited and Forrester Estate Private Limited by one of Mugabe’s supporters. One
of Mugabe’s supporters only identified as Mr Muzite, led a mob of 20 armed and
drunken men that violently occupied the properties on June 18. All the properties
are owned by a German citizen, Heinrich von Pezold, and are covered by an
investment protection agreement signed by Zimbabwe and Germany in 1995 but
which came into force in 2000.
The Harare government has refused to act against the illegal
occupants who claim they were allocated the properties under Mugabe’s
controversial land reform programme. Germany threatened to withdraw aid to
Zimbabwe in protest at what its embassy said was Harare’s “tolerance” for theft
of private property. In a second protest letter to Foreign Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi in three weeks, the German embassy urged the Zimbabwean government
to urgently intervene and stop the illegal occupation of the three plantations.
“The Zimbabwean government should be aware of the German
government’s support for Zimbabwe’s development which in 2009 alone amounted to
over US$ 50 million
However, it will not be
in a position to support a government which tolerates the blunt theft of German
nationals’ property in Zimbabwe,” read part of the protest letter. Relations
between Harare and Brussels took a hit following the holding of a
violence-marred presidential poll won by Mugabe in 2002. The EU and its Western
allies condemned the election as a fraud and imposed visa and financial
sanctions against the Zimbabwean leader and his top allies in Zanu (PF) and in
the military.
2010 07 06
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/7053250.html
07:58, July 06, 2010
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has denied that the two
Pakistanis arrested last week at the Beitbridge Border Post as they tried to
enter South Africa illegally are terrorists as earlier reported, according to
New Ziana on Monday.
Media reports said last week that Imran Muhammad who was
believed to be an international terrorist and Chaudry Parvez Ahmed were
arrested after Immigration officers found them using fake Kenyan passports. ZRP
chief spokesperson senior assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the
identity of the duo had been mistaken. "They were misrepresented in the
paper. People rushed to conclude that they were terrorists," he said.
Bvudzijena said the foreigners were still in police custody
assisting with investigations. "We are still carrying out investigations.
We are yet to establish more detail," he said.
According to media reports, the two flew from Saudi Arabia to
Tanzania where they fraudulently acquired Kenyan passports before connecting to
Zimbabwe by road.
The particular acts of terror that the suspects wanted to
commit in South Africa could not be established.
Source: Xinhua
.
2010 07 06
http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=7905
By CLIFFORD MASHIRI
Published: July 6, 2010
There is no denying that Zimbabwe has a lot to learn from the
recent conviction by a South African court of the country’s former police
chief, and former Interpol president Jackie Selebi on corruption charges
(Reuters, 02.07.10). Formerly a leading anti-apartheid activist and “well connected”
in the ruling ANC, Selebi had “links to organised crime” and received about 1.2
million rand to ignore drug trafficking.
While the ANC said in a statement that Selebi’s case showed
that South Africa is governed by laws that are applied without fear or favour ,
the Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille called for the prosecution of more
ANC leaders, while United Democratic Movement (UDF) immediately criticised the
African National Council’s ‘deployment strategy’ which it said “parachutes
unqualified cadres into high positions where allegations of corruption and
mismanagement soon surface” (www.businessday.co.za, 02/07/10). Critics of
former president Thabo Mbeki acccuse him of protecting Selebi.
Notwithstanding ongoing debate, South Africa has demonstrated
real political muscle in trying to combat corruption by committing over 50
court days to Selebi’s graft trial which also heard undisputed evidence that
Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach paid Agliotti, R100, 000 for bringing
Selebi to the table during meetings with Rautenbach’s lawyers about getting a
South African arrest warrant against him withdrawn. Rautenbach, the former
Hyundai boss, was sentenced to R40 million after appearing in a South African
court on 326 charges of fraud in September 2009.
Now what can Zanu-pf and indeed MDC learn from this ?.
A lot, I would hasten to say. In view of the fact that
Zimbabwe police are reportedly investigating a £10 million fraud case at the
National Railways while no action seems to have been taken following the Harare
City Council’s explosive land audit report implicating a government minister
and a businessman, it is not surprising that there is a very high perception of
corruption in Zimbabwe.
For example, an Afrobarometer study by Barbara Chikwanha and
Eldred Masunungure (2007:5) found that generally the youth and their seniors
see more corruption among Zimbabwe’s policy administrators (especially civil
servants) than policy makers (politicians) like the president, members of
parliament and local councillors.
Zimbabwe needs to emulate the Selebi case and be seen to be
dealing with corruption decisively rather than continue with its culture of
impunity. In 2003, the late Zanu-pf MP, Dr Edison Zvobgo accused the government
of condoning corruption saying that it was time to hunt down those spreading
the “aids of corruption” (The Daily News, 14 March 2003).
Sadly, he was not going to be the last one to express concern
because Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti has recently admitted that he was
close to powerless when it comes to fight the corruption in Zimbabwe:
“The solution goes beyond the legal solution, because you can
have 20 anti-corruption commissions in Zimbabwe but you cannot stop corruption”
(Afrol.com, 02/07/10).
As a demonstration that Zimbabwe still has much to learn about
fighting corruption the Zimbabwe Republic Police last week accused the Minister
of State Didymus Mutasa and Co-Minister of Home Affairs Theresa Makone of
obstructing justice by trying to release three men who are in police custody.
Finally, the full test of South Africa’s law enforcement
remains to be seen in the way the SAP and the courts will deal with the alleged
high level corruption in the Chiadzwa diamond licensing involving South African
companies (The Standard, 05/06.10 ; Africa Confidential AC, Vol 51 No 8, 2010,
“ Diamond Disputes” http://www.africa-confidential.com/article-preview/id/3531/
[accessed 22.06.10]
Clifford can be contacted on zimanalysis2009@gmail.com.
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, London, UK
2010 07 05
Led by retired Col. Basten Beta, the splinter group has
launched a media campaign against President Robert Mugabe and his inner circle,
accusing them of running the Reserve Bank and state enterprises like private
businesses.
Gibbs Dube
Washington 05 July 2010
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A new splinter faction of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans Association has broken ranks with former ruling party ZANU-PF saying
the country's economic woes are the consequence of poor governance, corruption
and cronyism promoted by President Robert Mugabe and other senior members of
the party.
Headed by retired Col. Basten Beta, the group has launched a
media campaign against President Mugabe and his inner circle, accusing them of
running the Reserve Bank and state enterprises like private businesses.
Sources said advertisements inserted in private newspapers by
the group accuse the president and other top ZANU-PF officials of amassing
wealth while millions of Zimbabweans live in abject poverty.
One ad declared: “Post war leadership continues to betray the
values of the armed struggle by destroying unity and promoting factionalism,
racism, tribalism, regionalism, nepotism, greed and corruption.”
Top ZANU-PF officials have responded angrily to the
advertisements, saying they will soon clamp down on the militant group after
holding a party meeting. Beta could not be reached for comment.
Sources in his group said it was time to speak out as the
country's deep problems cannot be resolved unless Mr. Mugabe and his associates
are removed from power.
The other two war veteran associations, headed by Jabulani
Sibanda and Joseph Chinotimba, back Mr. Mugabe.
Political commentator Nkululeko Sibanda said not only poor
governance and corruption but also Western sanctions are to blame for the
nation’s steep economic decline over the past decade.
“These war veterans should have spoken out against all these
problems soon after they were given gratuities of up to Z$ 50,000 each in the
late1990s, though they are saying a lot of sense,” Sibanda said.
2010 07 06
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/07/06/news0329.htm
AS reported recently by AFP, software piracy cost technology
companies more than $ 50 billion around the world last year with Asia
accounting for the largest share of losses. Despite successes in the fight to
protect intellectual property rights, on average 43 per cent of software used
in computers worldwide in 2009 was pirated, from 41 per cent the year before.
Worldwide, piracy losses reached $ 51.4 billion in 2009 with $ 16.5 billion in
the Asia-Pacific. Last year's losses worldwide, however, were three per cent
down from 2008. The rate of pirated software use fell in 54 economies, remained
steady in 38 and rose in 19. The problem was largely attributed to the growth
of the personal computer market in Brazil, India and China.
The average piracy rate in Asia-Pacific was 59 per cent, which
means that of the more than 900 million units installed last year above 530
million used 'unlicensed' software. According to the report, Bangladesh had the
highest software piracy rate in Asia, followed by Sri Lanka, Indonesia,
Vietnam, India and China. This study makes clear while efforts to bring down
piracy levels in the Asia-Pacific are enjoying some success, dollar losses at
over $ 16.5 billion remain the highest in the world.
For every $ 100 of legitimate software sales in 2009, another
$ 75 worth of unlicensed programmes were sold. Georgia was the world's top
pirate user, with 95 per cent of all software deemed illegal. That was followed
by Zimbabwe with 92 per cent, Bangladesh and Moldova with 91 per cent, Armenia
and Yemen with 90 per cent while the United States had the lowest piracy rate
with 20 per cent and Japan 21 per cent. Singapore was the only Southeast Asian
economy in the report's list of the 30 economies with the lowest piracy rates.
2010 07 05
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news050710/zanupf050710.htm
SW Radio Africa news - The Independent Voice of Zimbabwe
By Alex Bell
05 July 2010
ZANU PF intimidation is continuing to mar the ongoing process
to develop a new constitution, amid warnings that the process is being
undermined by violence.
SW Radio Africa correspondent Simon Muchemwa reported on
Monday that ZANU PF thugs are still threatening people, mainly in rural areas,
trying to force them to toe the party line. Muchemwa said that fear of reprisal
means there is almost no participation in the public process in some areas,
particularly where ZANU PF still has a strong footing. He said, in areas like
the Chivi district in Masvingo, the public have been issued with pamphlets that
contain ZANU PF approved answers about the constitution. At the same time, CIO
operatives and feared police officials have been sent to certain areas to speak
on behalf of residents, which Muchemwa said was a move to ensure silence from villagers.
The MDC on Monday also reported that in Matabeleland North
province, ZANU PF officials in Umguza area are harassing and intimidating MDC
members. Sawmills Headman Jealous Tshakalisa has intimidated and threatened
Simon Moyo, the MDC Umguza district youth vice chairperson who has been
mobilising people to participate in the constitution process.
In Mashonaland East province, an MDC member in Sadza, Chikomba
East district, Kemson Chikasha lost his front two teeth after he was assaulted
by his brother, who is a ZANU PF apologist and village head. The assault took
place during a constitution consultation meeting in Sadza on June 28 when
Kemson contributed during the meeting. His brother, the village head, warned
him not to speak as spokespersons had already been selected prior to the
meeting to speak on behalf of the whole ward.
The constitutional reform process has already been
overshadowed by administrative issues and a multitude of reports of
intimidation and violence. In the latest incident of violence three human
rights monitors, overseeing the public consultation process, were captured and
beaten with logs by ZANU PF supporters last weekend. Amnesty International has
warned that the attacks on human rights activists are undermining the efforts
to reform the constitution, and are a worrying reminder of the organised
violence that took place during the 2008 elections.
The monitors Paul Nechishanu, Artwel Katandika and Shingairayi
Garira, were working for the Independent Constitution Monitoring Project, which
is jointly run by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the Zimbabwe Peace
Project and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. The men were reportedly
abducted by ZANU PF supporters and taken to a farm in the Makonde district of
Mashonaland West. Garira sustained injuries to his eardrum while Nechishanu and
Katandika suffered head injuries after all three were beaten with logs.
The beatings followed the arrest of another team of monitors,
Godfrey Nyarota and Tapiwa Mavherevhedze, plus their driver Cornelius Chengu,
in Mutare. They were charged with practicing journalism without accreditation
and released on US$ 20 bail each. Reports indicate that the police acted at the
instigation of a well known ZANU PF activist and “war veteran”.
Another activist in Mutare, Enddy Ziyera, the provincial
coordinator of the independent monitoring project, was detained for several
hours and released without charge after bringing food for the three activists
in detention. On the same day in Marondera, three MDC activists were seized by
unidentified state security agents. They were later found detained at Marondera
police station and are yet to be charged.
2010 07 05
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=552&fArticleId=5542139
July 5, 2010
Pick n Pay should use the proceeds from the sale of its
struggling Australian operations to compete more effectively in South Africa
and expand its footprint in the region, analysts said.
The company said this week it had accepted an
"unsolicited" offer of A$ 215-million (R1.4-billion) for its 77
Franklins supermarkets and eight franchises in New South Wales from Metcash,
Australia's largest grocery wholesaler.
The Australian-listed wholesaler was bought in 2005 from South
African company Metcash Africa.
When Pick n Pay entered Australia, a notoriously difficult
market for South African retailers, to diversify its geographical footprint in
2001, the expectation was that Franklins would be profitable in 12 to 24
months.
However, the group only managed to earn its first operating
profit in the 2009 financial year after investing about R1.42-billion in
Franklins.
Exiting Australia was a "good move" and would allow
Pick n Pay to invest the capital in South Africa at higher returns, said Danie
Pretorius, retail analyst at RMB Morgan Stanley.
While the decision to sell was because it needed cash,
"there is no shortage of capital projects in this company" where the
money can be put to use, said Pick n Pay financial director Dennis Cope.
This year, R1.3-billion will be spent on opening new and
refurbishing existing stores.
Pick n Pay's strategy to move to centralised distribution - an
area where the company has lagged rivals Shoprite, Spar and Woolworths - will
lead to investment of R2-billion over three years in new centres in Cape Town,
Port Elizabeth and Durban. One centre is already operational in Gauteng.
Cope said the group would hold stock centrally rather than at
individual shops. The system will "get rid of logistics and congestion at
the back door", cut down on storage space at individual shops and ensure
that "you're in stock of the right product at the right time and at the
right price".
Storage and other non-trading space can take up 50 percent of
a shop area, and rent must be paid for this area where no trade takes place.
The group will also be expanding to Mozambique, Mauritius and
Angola on a franchise basis, with limited capital requirements, Cope said.
"A lot of other South African retailers, like Shoprite,
have gone into the rest of Africa and have been very successful," said
Imara ISP Reid analyst Garth Mackenzie. "It is not a bad idea for Pick n
Pay to look at growing in Africa - there is still scope."
Shoprite has operations in 16 countries on the continent,
while Pick n Pay has shops in Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland and has a 25
percent stake in TM Supermarkets in Zimbabwe.
Dollarisation of the Zimbabwean economy last year had made a
"huge difference" to operations, and Pick n Pay would be "happy
to increase our stake", said Cope.
He maintains the decision to invest in Australia in 2001 was
the right one, though, with the benefit of hindsight, Pick n Pay "clearly
would've been better off if we had simply left it (the money spent) in the
bank".
"The business hardly made any profits in nine years, but
this is a structural problem," said Pretorius. "Franklins'
competitors are very big. You need scale to compete, and Franklins didn't have
it."
Coles and Woolworths (unrelated to the South African chain),
are Australia's market leaders with more than 2 500 stores each.
This is Pick n Pay's second exit from Australia. The group
departed in the late '80s, despite running a very successful hypermarket in
Brisbane, when anti-apartheid construction unions refused to build new stores
in Sydney and Melbourne. - I-Net Bridge
2010 07 05
Sunday News
http://www.sundaynews.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=6562&cat=1
Monday, July 05, 2010
Sunday News Reporter
THERE was an outcry among some Zanu-(PF) party supporters
yesterday when party provincial chairman, Cde Isaac Dakamela, was suspended by
the party’s Politburo members in Bulawayo, who said he had become defiant to
the party’s provincial leadership.
The commotion broke out at the party’s provincial office,
Davies Hall, after Cde Dakamela told party supporters that he would not be
chairing a meeting but Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, a member of the Politburo, would
be in charge because he had been suspended by Politburo members.
This revelation did not go down well with party supporters who
then stormed out of the building accusing the leadership of hard-handedness.
After some minutes, Cde Dakamela calmed the party supporters
and said he got into trouble for inviting the National chairman of the Zimbabwe
National Liberation War veterans Association, Cde Jabulani Sibanda, to a
provincial meeting two weeks ago.
“My crime is that I invited Cde Sibanda who is said to have
insulted the leadership,’’ he said.
Contacted for comment, Dr Ndlovu said members of the Politburo
had decided to suspend Cde Dakamela because he had become insubordinate and
defiant to the local leaders.
Dr Ndlovu said the decision was taken because Cde Dakamela's
behavior indicated that there was no co-operation in the party.
“The party is one. The politburo and the central committee are
part of the party. The chairman must work with the provincial Politburo but Cde
Dakamela wasn’t. We called him thrice to attend meetings but he didn’t. If he
won’t listen to us then who will he listen to,’’ he said.
Dr Ndlovu said the politburo was not accusing Cde Dakamela of
any crime but as a leader he should abide by the party’s constitution.
“Chapter 3 section 18 reads that a leader must be loyal,
honest to the party. He must defend the party and not put the party in
disrepute. A leader must be loyal not defiant,’’ he said.
Dr Ndlovu said it was the politburos' responsibility to make
sure that the party moved forward and solve any disparities within the party.
"If we don't cooperate as party members there won't be
any development. We decided to suspend him while we carry out investigations.
There are reports that money donated from the congress last year was stolen,
there are cases of meat theft as well. "Investigations have to be done
while he is not the chairman to allow the process to move swiftly," he
said.
Dr Ndlovu said he could not comment on Cde Dakamela's
allegations as he insisted that the politburo members had done what was good
for the party.
"We said he must stand aside while problems are solved.
As party supporters there must be cooperating between the people but if one
becomes defiant then there is no cooperation," he said.
2010 07 05
Sunday News
Monday, July 05, 2010
http://www.sundaynews.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=6571&cat=1
By Khanyile Mlotshwa
THE situation in prisons is admittedly bad but the Zimbabwe
Prison Services (ZPS) is seeking partnerships in the corporate world to raise
funds to alleviate the state of affairs in the country's penitential
institutions, a senior official has said.
In an interview with Sunday News, Prisons Commissioner,
Retired Lieutenant General, Paradzayi Zimondi, said as a result of economic
hardships brought by illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, prisons
were hard hit.
“Usually prisons are not a very good place to be in. Society
must understand that. It’s not good for people to be in prison.
“We have had problems in the area of food and we have not been
following the dietary scheme that we have because of economic hardships,” he
said.
Rtd Lt Gen Zimondi said prisons also faced shortages in terms
of drugs and, due to the economic situation; the ZPS could not sustain the
essential medicines supply in prisons.
“The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of
challenges. The country’s prisons are not as good as we would want them to be,
that is to be according to our mission to incarcerate, rehabilitate and
re-integrate offenders into society. The shortage of resources because of
sanctions is affecting us,” he said.
Last year, hostile regional media and websites, reported that
Zimbabwean prisoners were starving and dying of disease due to meagre food
supplies and appalling conditions.
Some of the stories quoted the then Deputy Minister of
Justice, Jesse Majome, confirming the situation was bad in the country's
prisons.
The Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, however, dismissed
the reports as an exaggeration.
Rtd Lt General Zimondi said the ZPS was looking for
partnerships in a number of business ventures.
“We are looking for partnerships and joint ventures with
companies that are interested. We have a number of projects that we have been
working on such as pig projects, workshops and farming.
“We have quite a lot in that area. We will work out the
modalities and come up with a win-win situation. Those with expertise in the
areas we are looking at should come forward, that is those who require us to do
business with them,” he said.
Com Zimondi said these business projects were also important
because they dovetail well with the issue of rehabilitation in the prison
service.
“The issue of rehabilitation is very important to us. If we go
into these partnerships we will have our prisoners work on those projects and
gain skills so that when they go out they will be able to work for themselves.
“The projects will facilitate learning for them and those with
the requisite skills and expertise will impart these skills to them. When the
prisoners go out they would have learnt something,” he said.
Rtd Lt General Zimondi said they were also looking at the
benefits of these projects to the officers in the prison service. “As far as
our officials are concerned, they would also learn something. They are getting
old, and when they retire they would have learned something out of these
projects, something that can benefit them in their lives after the service,” he
said.
2010 07 05
Mon 05/07/2010 14:41
Zimbabwe: Harare won’t wait for
Kimberley Process
Zimbabwe will sell its diamond
stockpile, worth about $ 1.7bn, without waiting for approval from the Kimberley
Process, the government has said. The Financial Times reports that
delegates from governments involved in the Kimberley Process gathered for a
meeting in Tel Aviv last week but they were unable to agree whether to give a
clean bill of health to renewed diamond exports from Zimbabwe. The country
had voluntarily suspended all exports after concerns were raised about human
rights abuses, including forced labour, at the Marange diamond fields in
eastern Zimbabwe, where senior allies of President Robert Mugabe, are
believed to control valuable reserves.
Meanwhile, Harare Magistrate
Donald Ndirowei has denied bail to diamond investigator Farai Maguwu. SW Radio reports that the director of the Centre for Research
and Development has been in custody for nearly four weeks as police and
prosecutors play cat and mouse games to prolong his detention. Mugabe's
regime accuses him of publishing 'false' reports on human rights abuses
committed at the diamond mines in Marange. The magistrate accepted claims
from the investigating officer, Detective Inspector Henry Sostein Dowa, that he
needed more time to investigate the matter.
Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai reasserts his
authority
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai's surprise reshuffle of his senior Ministers is widely seen as an
attempt to reassert his authority in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
although it has done little to end talk of a widening rift within his party.
According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, tension is said to be rising between
Tsvangirai's supporters and a faction loyal to Tendai Biti, the Finance
Minister and the MDC’s secretary general. But Tsvangirai is hoping the
reshuffle will be seen as an act of strong leadership at a time when he is
facing growing criticism over his ‘junior’ role in Zimbabwe's ruling coalition.
Full Mail & Guardian Online report
Zimbabwe: Police arrest SA farmer
Zimbabwean police have arrested SA
farmer Mike Odendaal for occupying his farm ‘illegally’ even though he had a
court order allowing him to stay. According to a report on the IoL site,
the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement signed between
Zimbabwe and SA in 2009 did nothing to stop him losing his farm. Odendaal
was granted a High Court order on 26 June allowing him to remain on Wolvedraai
Farm in Chipinge after suspected Zanu-PF officials had invaded it.
Meanwhile, Germany says it will
cut off aid to Zimbabwe unless illegal and violent occupiers leave a farm owned
by a German national. In a
protest note to the Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry, Germany noted the occupation
of the eastern Zimbabwe property owned by German investor Heinrich von Pezold
violated a decade-old investment agreement between the two countries.
According to a report in The Times, Germany gave US$ 50m to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe: Cabinet approves electoral
reform
Zimbabwe will speed up the release
of election results and bar police interference in voting in future, a senior
government Minister said, according to a report on the News24 site. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Zimbabwe's Cabinet had
agreed to amendments to the electoral law, and that Attorney-General Johannes
Tomana would be drafting a Bill to be debated by parliament in the coming
months. ‘The parties have agreed to amend the Electoral Act so that the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is obliged to declare presidential election
results not more than five days after the day of voting,’ he said. The
proposed amendments would also bar police officers - who were accused in the
2008 poll of abusing their power - from ‘taking part or interfering with the
electoral process beyond maintaining law and order’. Amendments would allow
the recently established independent Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to warn
election candidates, election agents or parties implicated in acts of political
violence and to set up special courts to try such cases.
Full report on the News24 site
2010 07 06
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_&fArticleId=5542829
July 6, 2010
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
Political dynasties are taking over the mining industry and
this will increase South Africa's risk premium from foreign investors,
political analysts have warned.
Nazmeera Moola, a director with Maquarie First South, said the
current wrangle over the Sishen iron ore mining rights had hurt perceptions of
South Africa with overseas investors.
This raised South Africa's risk premium, she said. "And
this will deter investment in the sector - both local and foreign."
Steven Friedman of the University of Johannesburg's Centre for
the Study of Democracy said politically connected black people had started
featuring in the mining industry as early as the 1990s.
Khulubuse Zuma, a nephew of President Jacob Zuma, and Zondwa
Mandela, a grandson of Nelson Mandela, are directors of Aurora Empowerment
Systems, which manages two gold mines that were formerly owned by the Pamodzi
Gold. Aurora has been in the news lately for failing to pay workers.
Duduza Zuma, the son of the president, hogged the news
yesterday when the Star reported that he was trying to transfer the workers in
his Klerksdorp uranium mine to a specialised contractor.
Friedman said the dynasties in the mining sector began with
Mzi Khumalo, a former political prisoner who was a major shareholder in JCI. He
partnered with Brett Kebble in buying the firm from Anglo American.
Both Friedman and another political analyst who wanted to
remain anonymous said the debate on the nationalisation of mines was just a
smokescreen for a politically connected few who wanted a piece of government
action and another financial stream.
The analyst said the port of entry was to seek access to the
ANC for business opportunities. "You don't need any acumen or business
skills"
Kumba Iron Ore has had to come to the defence of its chairman,
Lazarus Zim, who has been linked to Imperial Crown Trading, the empowerment
group that bought the 21.4 percent right in Sishen iron ore mine.
Zim is a director and shareholder of Sahara Computers, which
is owned by the Gupta brothers, who are reportedly close to President Zuma.
The Gupta's Oakbay Trust is sizeable shareholder in Zim's
Afripalm Resources, which controls Mvelaphanda Resources.
2010 07 05
http://www1.voanews.com/zimbabwe/news/Zimbabwe-No-Plans-to-Arrest-NGOs-97810219.html
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Select Committee Co-Chairman Douglas Mwonzora of the MDC
formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said monitors or observers are
free to participate as long as they identify themselves to the committee for
accreditation
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington 05 July 2010
Two of the three co-chairmen of the parliamentary select
committee in charge of Zimbabwe's constitutional revision process said Monday
that it is not true, as press reports have suggested, that they have called or
will call for the arrest of non-governmental organization activists monitoring
the ongoing public outreach process.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project, the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network and the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have deployed 420 monitors to
observe the consultative phase of constitutional revision. Press reports said
committee members had accused the NGO monitors of spreading falsehoods and
wanted them arrested.
Select Committee Co-Chairman Douglas Mwonzora of the Movement
for Democratic Change formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told VOA
Studio 7 reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that observers are free to participate as
long as they identify themselves to the committee and secure accreditation.
Co-Chairman Edward Mkhosi of the MDC grouping of Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara said he was not aware that anyone on his committee
was calling for the arrest of independent monitors. Mkhosi told VOA that the panel
is encouraging wide participation in outreach meetings being held across the
country.
VOA was unable to reach the ZANU-PF co-chairman of the
committee, Paul Mangwana, who was quoted by the Web news source ZimOnline as
saying NGOs have a “hidden agenda” and calling for the arrest of monitors.
The three non-governmental organizations monitoring meetings
said they will issue a response on Tuesday to the accusation that they are
misrepresenting what is going on in the troubled outreach process. Since it's launch
last month the process has been plagued by organizational and logistical
problems, and alleged intimidation of the public by liberation war veterans and
youth activists of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
Irene Petras, spokeswoman for the independent NGO monitoring
organization, told VOA that the three organizations involved were meeting on
Monday to prepare a response to the allegations.
A spokesman for the General Agricultural and Plantation
Workers Union of Zimbabwe rejected the charge the monitors are disseminating
false reports, saying there has in fact been intimidation of the public by war
veterans and ZANU-PF youth with, at some venues, only war veterans allowed to
speak during outreach meetings.
Commenting on the controversy, National Constitutional
Assembly spokesman Madock Chivasa, whose organization opposes the
Parliament-led process, told Jonga Kandemiiri the NCA supports independent
monitoring.
In the outreach process itself, a report from Grasslands,
Mashonaland East, said that despite public information efforts by organizers
there was still low turnout with most meetings attended mainly by political
party members.
Zimbabwe United Residents Association Secretary General
Masimba Ruzvidzo, in Grasslands Monday monitoring meetings, said most of those
attending were women, and that youth have not been very forthcoming.
2010 07 06
http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=7909
By GETRUDE GUMEDE
Published: July 6, 2010
In Mashonaland East province, an MDC member in Sadza, Chikomba
East district, Kemson Chikasha (67) lost his front two teeth after he was
assaulted by his brother, who is a Zanu PF apologist and village head.
The assault took place during a constitution consultation
meeting in Sadza on June 28 when Kemson contributed during the meeting. His
brother, the village head, warned him not to speak as spokespersons had already
been selected prior to the meeting to speak on behalf of the whole ward. In
Matabeleland North province, Zanu PF officials in Umguza area are harassing and
intimidating MDC members. Sawmills Headman Jealous Tshakalisa has intimidated
and threatened Simon Moyo, the MDC Umguza district youth vice chairperson has
been mobilising people to participate in the constitution process.
In Masvingo province, police at Muchakata post have refused to
arrest Zanu PF thugs who torched houses belonging to MDC supporters in June
2008, claiming the cases are outdated. Ackson Mawire, whose relative Debora
Chiriga`s two huts were torched by Zanu PF thugs in June 2008, in the Renco
area of Masvingo South, said he went to Muchakata police post to make a follow
up on the issue and the police details manning the post openly told him the
case was no longer relevant and that the dockets were missing.
In the same province, Chief Fortune Charumbira last month
allegedly instructed members of the neighbourhood watch committee to destroy
houses belonging to four MDC supporters in the Mushandike area of Masvingo west
constituency. According to reports from the area, villagers in Mushandike (
village 16 B resettlement), got the shock of their lives when members of the
neighbourhood watch committee, also known as police constabularies, stormed the
place on June 5 and allegedly destroyed four houses
belonging to MDC supporters. The MDC members who fell victim
to the barbaric act are Philda Tota, Grace Gwauya, Shamiso Nhongo and Stephen
Sibanda.
The MDC Women’s Assembly secretary, Hon Evelyn Masaiti has
urged women to turn out in large numbers in the constitution-making process to
fulfill the goal of 50-50 gender representation in key developmental posts.
‘The issue of patriarchy is of high concern where men are placed with great
honour and women are inferior in decision making and taking up leadership
positions,” said Hon Masaiti.
Addressing women in Gokwe Kana and Gokwe Nembudziya in the
Midlands north province over the weekend, Hon Masaiti condemned incidences of
intimidation continuing in Gokwe where MDC members are being threatened with
eviction by chiefs and headmen if they stand up and express their opinions when
the Copac team reaches their wards.
“Zanu PF feels the only way they can keep their position is by
threatening people. But you must not cow to their threats, it’s about time the
voice of the masses is raised to extricate this country of Mugabe’s despotism.
It’s a struggle we have to finish, let us voice up and be heard.” The
mini-rallies were attended by Provincial women assembly led by chairlady Ngoma
Bessie and other members.
2010 07 06
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=19036
By Isaac Chihota
for ZimEye.org
Published: July 6, 2010
Harare
(ZimEye)
As Zimbabwe’s Parliament Constitution Select Committee(COPAC)
team faces president Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party militant junta, the
initiative’s leader, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana vowed to arrest independent
monitors claiming against his own previous admission in which he stated that
there has been violence in the nationwide consultation endeavour.
Paul Mangwana
“We have had meetings with the Select Committee where our team
leaders have reported that there was no violence,” Mangwana said contradicting
an earlier statement the previous week in which speaking to the Newsday news
service, he said:
“I can confirm that in Chinhoyi there was an almost volatile
situation when one of the political parties was being suspected of using Copac
vehicles to lobby its party members.”
He said Copac experienced problems in Mashonaland West where
people thought it was unsafe to participate without police presence.
Adding to Mangwana’s admission and speaking to ZimEye, a COPAC
commissioner who requested anonymity said:
We must not fool ourselves
“The whole process - we must not fool ourselves to say that it
is going to be a people owned document. That’s a lie. Because from the very
first meeting, we have been disrupted many times,” said the commissioner,
adding that they were threatened with death in Mhangura.
“We were told ‘pack your bags and move’, otherwise if we would
not leave they would burn us alive”
“They are lining up selected people to make presentations.
These people come up and just declare: ‘What so and so said is what we agree
with’. When it comes to issues pertaining presidential powers, these people
just state: ‘We are content with the way things are. Things should just remain
as they are -( Zvazvagara zviri ngazvive izvozvo)’. “
The commissioner revealed that in Mashonaland West there is a
ring leader by the name of Robert Chikanyika (provincial chairperson) who
together with others, follow COPAC update bulletins in the newspaper, so that
when we arrrive to the place we find there are no people there. In Masvingo
cattle are being slaughtered and poor people invited to feast just before going
for deliberations.”
Radiovop reports that in separate interviews Mangwana and his
MDC counterpart, Douglas Mwonzora said police should arrest anyone claiming to
be monitors of COPAC. “These people from on-governmental organisations must be
arrested. They are peddling lies about the process. In fact COPAC does not have
monitors. Why should we be monitored ?.
We believe they have a hidden agenda to tarnish the process,”
said Mangwana, adding that they had identified 480 bogus monitors.
Monitors disseminating falsehoods ?.
Mwonzora is quoted saying: “These monitors are disseminating
falsehoods about the process.” ZPP, ZESN and ZLHR last week deployed 420
monitors to shadow the controversial constitution-making process. What seems to
have irked the COPAC officials were reports of political violence and
intimidation being circulated by the independent monitors. Three independent
monitors were severely assaulted by Zanu (PF) youth. National police spokesman,
Wayne Bvudzijena, said police would not hesitate to arrest people disrupting
the outreach consultative exercise.
Copac is a constitutional consultation process aiming at
re-writing Zimbabwe’s constitution before general elections, soon to be held.
(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
2010 07 05
Written by Tsungai Murandu
Monday, 05 July 2010 16:02
Harare
Fireworks are expected at the Commercial Farmers Union
congress scheduled for Harare next month at a time the industry remains under
siege from marauding gangs of Zanu (PF) supporters.
The CFU said its 2010 congress will take place on August 2 and
3 in the capital and on the agenda will be the union’s response to on-going
farm violence and a recovery plan for the beleaguered agricultural sector.
Highlights will include reports on the plight of South African nationals driven
off their farms by Zanu (PF) supporters and the CFU’s compensation and recovery
programme for the sector.
Zimbabwe’s white farmers have submitted an ambitious
agricultural recovery plan to government that proposes converting into
interest-bearing bonds the amount owed by Harare to farmers for farms
expropriated during President Robert Mugabe’s controversial decade-long land
reform programme.
The proposal, which was developed over the past eight months, is
based on a cost-recovery model that would allow the cash-strapped Zimbabwe
government to gradually pay off affected white farmers for land acquired while
also reviving the country’s battered agriculture sector. Central to the success
of the proposal would be an agreement between government and the farmers on the
total value of land and investments on farms acquired since the redistribution
exercise began in 2000. The white farmers last year put a US$ 5 billion price
tag on farms and assets grabbed by the government.
The broke Harare regime has however refused to compensate the
farmers for the land, insisting that the white farmers must seek compensation
from the British government, which it accused of reneging on a 1979 promise to
fund Zimbabwe’s resettlement programme. The CFU is also working on various
proposals to improve the welfare of South African citizens whose farms were
expropriated by the Harare authorities. More than 200 South Africans have lost
their farms in Zimbabwe since 2000.
2010 07 05
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5560.html
05 July, 2010 06:17:00
Harare
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) says it has started
campaigning for the rejection of the constitutional draft that will be produced
by the ongoing constitution making exercise.
The constitutional pressure said the process led by the
Parliamentary Select Committee(COPAC) will produce a flawed outcome because of
the chaos and confusion that has so far characterised the public consultations.
“The NCA, through the Take Charge Campaign have already
started the campaign for the rejection of a draft constitution that will emerge
from the fraudulent process currently underway and led by selfish greedy
politicians from Zanu (PF) and MDC,” Madock Chivasa, the NCA spokesperson said
at the weekend.
NCA led a “NO” vote campaign in 2000, which led to the rejection
of the constitutional draft that was produced by the Chidyausiku-led
commission.
The draft among other things kept Mugabe’s powers intact and
had no provision for presidential term limits.
Like the 2000 draft, the outcome of the current process is
likely to keep the status quo with regards to presidential affairs because of
Zanu PF’s spirited campaign for the adoption of the Kariba Draft.
The draft, a product of a compromise between Zanu (PF) and the
two MDC parties leaves presidential powers largely intact.
The NCA argues that the current constitution making process
should be led by an independent commission, not politicians as is the case.
“The process of making a constitution is as important as the
content of the constitution. A defective constitution-making process leads to a
defective constitution. The only process that is valid for the
making of the constitution is a people driven process, because
a constitution must be by, and for, the people,” said Chivasa.
Analysts have predicted that due to the intimidation,
maladministration and political jockeying among political parties and a general
logistical chaos, the process will not reflect fairly the views of the people.
The on and off process has so far been characterised by
massive intimidation of rural villagers, propaganda education, consultation
venue switches and gagging of opinions. -Radio VOP
2010 07 05
http://www.phonienews.com/7081/rbz-splashes-billions-on-court-victory-celebration/
Monday, July 5th, 2010
[ As published on the official website: www.ZimEye.com ]
By Thulani Mpofu
BULAWAYO
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor,
Gideon Gono has splashed billions in public funds on
advertisements in national newspapers to celebrate a recent court ruling which
absolved the central bank in a foreign currency case.
The central bank published a 16 page full colour supplement
last Friday titled "When facts are clear, justice will always prevail ---
RBZ cleared of wrongdoing in Flatwater case,".
The supplement featured no fewer than 20 newspaper cuttings of
stories that originally accused the apex bank of being involved in shady
foreign currency dealings.
An advertising executive at Chronicle, one of Zimpapers titles
said the daily newspaper earned billion, while The Herald, whose advertising
tariffs are higher made around billion from the advertorials.
"The RBZ is our cash-cow," said the executive, on
condition of anonymity.
"They give us advertisements from monetary policy
statements, programmes like the farm mechanisation schemes to other general
communications with its publics. But sometimes you wonder why a whole RBZ would
place self-gratification adverts like this one,'' he said.
He added, ''We need advertising revenue yes, but sometimes you
ask yourself whether public funds are not being abused."
The total figure spent in US dollars terms in Herald and
Chronicle publications sums up to an estimated USD10 000 on the parallel market
rate excluding supplements that were published in other weekly newspapers that
could baloon the cost.
The high profile court case was sparked by last month's arrest
of Nigel Marozhe and Tazviwana Chivaviro, directors of Flatwater Investments
who are linked to Zanu -PF legislator, David Butau who fled to the UK last
December after it emerged that police were about to arrest him for alleged illicit
foreign currency deals.
Facts presented in court are that Flatwater was last year
given , 1 trillion by the RBZ to finance the importation of 102 tractors from
Michigan Tractors of South Africa under the government-funded Farm
Mechanisation Programme on the understanding that the company had its own
foreign currency in offshore accounts.
However, it turned out that Flatwater did not have the forex,
thus went on to illegally buy the hard currency on the black market in Harare
and Bulawayo using several runners, including Butau.
RBZ brags over court ruling
On the first page, Gono gloats over the ruling by Harare
provincial magistrate, Mishrod Guvamombe, and accuses unnamed high profile
Zimbabweans of pursuing an adversarial agenda against him and the RBZ.
On page three of the advertorial he splashes cuttings of
stories published in The Herald and Chronicle in which Guvamombe handed down
the judgment.
Subsequent pages feature cuttings on the court case and other
writings from local and online publications, accusing the RBZ of complicity in
the shady foreign currency deals.
"The case where some people sought to divert attention
from the main issue of illegal foreign currency dealings," said Gono,
"it became clear that the Reserve Bank as the complainant was now being
attacked and persecuted, by some highly-placed people in positions of authority
and influence, calling for the arrest of the governor and his officials.
This, the RBZ saw as a grand cover-up operation to divert the
public, and convert attention from the real facts, culprits and issues on the
ground."
Butau is closely linked to Retired General Solomon Mujuru, who
has clashed with Gono on several occasions.
The Guruve North Zanu -PF legislator is now involved in a war
of words with Gono from London and accuses the latter of seeking to settle old
scores against him.
Analysts say by accusing "highly-placed people in
positions of authority and influence" who sought his arrest to
"convert attention from the real facts and culprits" Gono could be
referring to Mujuru and his other perceived foes.
Initially, on January 4, a Harare prosecutor, Tawanda Zvekare
who was handling the case, accused the RBZ of irregularly channeling the , 1
trillion to Flatwater adding that the money was not being accounted for.
"I find it incredulous that a whole central bank of a
country would release trillions to a company on the strength of a mere letter,
which was not verified.
This smacks of conspiracy between the central bank and the
company to steal all this money," charged Zvekare.
Magistrate disputes prosecutor
On handing down his judgment on Monday last week, magistrate
Guvamombe, absolved the RBZ of secretly releasing the , 1 trillion to
Flatwater, which was believed to be an undeserving shelf company.
Nevertheless, he convicted Flatwater directors, Marozhe and
Chivaviro of illegally buying foreign currency on the black market.
Guvamombe fined them 0 billion each and Flatwater 0 billion
for the crime.
He disputed Zvekare's suggestion for Gono to be arrested for
alleged complicity in the Flatwater case and also ordered the company's
directors to pay 5 restitution to the central bank.
Guvamombe said documentary evidence brought to the court by
both the RBZ and Flatwater showed that the company was properly registered but
only compromised itself "by roping in dubious characters like Butau and
others to source foreign currency." - www.ZimEye.com
By Thulani Mpofu, ZimEye Business Editor, reporting from
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Related Foreign Currency Analyst Article
2010 07 06
http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-07-06-mdc-have-no-guts-to-ward-off-terror
PSYCHOLOGY MAZIWISA
Jul 06 2010 12:33
Zanu PF as led by Robert Mugabe has not the slightest
intention to allow Zimbabweans to freely express their political will
especially if it has the potential to result in a change of government.
Their culture of violence has sabotaged every election since
2002. It is now being shamelessly brought to bear on the current constitutional
outreach programme even with the unity government in place.
The simple reality is that Mugabe is not interested in any
process whose outcome might result in Morgan Tsvangirai succeeding him as
president.
He will, therefore, stop at nothing in his quest to stay in
power. Zanu PF believes not in the democratic process but in tyranny as the
tried and tested and, therefore, the only means to attain and stay in power.
The party does not believe in free and fair elections let alone their results.
Consequently, to believe that, simply by virtue of the
institution of the inclusive government and his denunciations of violence,
Mugabe has become more disposed to democracy is to be fooled by him.
Our country has been brutalised at the expense of satisfying a
handful of self-interested, sycophants who have neither the desire nor the
conscience to reflect on the extent of their unbelievable destruction.
Reports compiled across the country about the three-month long
constitutional outreach programme paint a sad and disturbing picture.
They are a reflection not just of the breathtaking level of
shamelessness and willingness on the part of Zanu PF to intimidate, citizens
but also of their frightening determination to do anything and everything,
however unthinkable it may be, simply in order to confirm Mugabe as President
for life.
Soldiers whose duty should be to safeguard the nation against
any threat to the safety and security of its civilian citizens are purpotedly
being ordered to march on that very civilian population with arms of war.
That they do so chanting the slogans of a specific party and,
therefore, declaring their allegiance not to the nation in keeping with their
oath but to that party, speaks to the character of Zimbabwe as a failed state.
Across the nation, whatever sense of security was engendered
by the advent of the inclusive government, is fast giving way to considerable
apprehension and alarm.
In Bindura residents have been told that if they fail to
support the Kariba Draft Constitution which guarantees Mugabe’s excessive
powers they do so at their own peril.
Sadly, there is absolutely nothing new in this behaviour. It
has happened too often before to come as a surprise to anyone. If anything, it
has come to be regarded more as normal than abnormal in Zimbabwe. The onus is
not on Mugabe but on Tsvangirai to show it in a different light.
Thus far, he has not succeeded in doing so and the inevitable
danger is that a lot more innocent lives will be lost. Whatever progress has
been achieved so far will be derailed, and the country will plummet further
into the depths of dictatorship from which it may never emerge. Any honest
analysis of the MDC - post September 15, 2008 - would indicate that apart from
unsuccessfully declaring unilateral appointments by Mugabe as null and void,
the MDC as we have known it over the years: courageous, confrontational,
uncompromising and proactive has become alarmingly ineffective and compromised.
Indeed, there might just well be some justification for the
view that many in the MDC have become comfortable in government and are more
focused on enjoying the privileges of office than on challenging Mugabe and
Zanu PF.
How many people had limbs chopped off, relatives tortured and
or killed in the fight for democracy during the infamous 2008 presidential
election ?.
They endured their sufferings because they were filled with
hope and, while they did not expect direct assistance from the MDC at the time,
many now rightly expect Tsvangirai and the MDC, as partners in the inclusive
government with a say in controlling the police force, to do more to protect
not just its supporters but all peace-loving Zimbabweans.
There is looming danger that, if the MDC does not have the
guts to ward off the terror, victory will go to those intent on having things
their way as more and more Zimbabweans give in to their demands.
Whenever reports of calculated and deliberate violence have
surfaced, this writer has given voice to the legitimate expectation of the
people of Zimbabwe that Tsvangirai and the MDC should do more than just deplore
the violence and actually take decisive action.
Intimidatory military camps across the country must be closed
immediately and troops returned to barracks. Tsvangirai must physically go to
those camps to ensure that they are closed down.
The way forward for Zimbabwe will involve, among other things:
* Free and fair elections conducted and supervised by the
United Nations and Sadc;
* Fostering close ties between Zimbabwean MPs and their
counterparts in other parliaments with a view to developing and sustaining a
parliamentary democracy in Zimbabwe;
* Temporary appointments of South African judges to
re-establish an independent judiciary and to train Zimbabwean judges to succeed
them;
* Similarly, temporary appointments of South African military
and police officers to build up the Zimbabwe Defence Forces and Zimbabwe
Republic Police and to train Zimbabwean officers to succeed them.
Mugabe and Zanu PF will not initiate and implement strategies
such as these. It is up to Tsvangirai and the MDC.
* - Psychology Maziwisa, LLB, Union for Sustainable Democracy,
www.usd.org.zw
The Herald
2010 07 06
By Tsungirirai Dhambuza recently in Beitbridge
The Immigration Department is battling to clear travellers at
Beitbridge Border Post following the introduction of a new scanning system.
The new system has caused confusion at the port of entry, with
passengers complaining of delays.
Immigration authorities introduced the new system in tandem
with international standards to weed out fake travelling documents.
Assistant regional immigration officer Mr Charles Gwene blamed
the delays on documents that are not readable on the new machines. "It
depends on the documents because some of them can not be read by the machines.
The type and quality of the documents matter," he said.
Mr Gwene said the confusion and delays were normal when a new
system was introduced as immigration officers had to get used to it.
Long queues characterised the border last week and at the
weekend.
The queues stretched from the border post to the Limpopo River
as immigration officers battled to get to grips with the new system.
Mr Shame Mapako, a cross border trader, said: "I spent
five hours in the queue and I think these systems should be introduced
gradually until they can effectively handle them."
Truck driver Mr James Mombe was even more scathing in his
assessment.
"They are some (officers) who are taking more than ten
minutes serving one person. There is need to employ computer-literate
people," he said.
Government introduced a computerisation programme at borders
and airports across Zimbabwe to improve efficiency at the crossing points.
The Herald
2010 07 06
By Collin Matiza
TOP Zimbabwean female tennis player Cara Black got some rich
pickings at the just-ended Wimbledon Championships where she earned a total of
US$ 165 622.
At this year’s third Grand Slam of the year, which ended in
London on Sunday, Black played in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles competitions
where she partnered Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova and Leander Paes of India
respectively.
And the 31-year-old Zimbabwean doubles specialist once again
had a memorable outing at the All England Tennis Club where she managed to win
the mixed doubles title with Paes on Sunday.
This saw her making amends for her early exit in the women’s
doubles competition where she bowed out in the third round with Hantuchova.
Black was all smiles on the final day of the competition on
Sunday at the All England Tennis Club where she combined forces with Paes to
lift the Wimbledon mixed doubles crown by defeating Wesley Moodie of South
Africa and Lisa Raymond of the United States in the final in straight sets 6-4,
7-6 (7/5).
And the Zimbabwean-Indian combo received close to US$ 140 000
which was on the table for the winners of the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon
this year.
Black had earlier collected US$ 25 622 for reaching the third
round of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon with Hantuchova in which they lost to
American Raymond and Rennae Stubbs of Australia in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.
This saw Black collecting a total of US$ 165 622 with her two
partners Paes and Hantuchova at Wimbledon this year.
As an individual, Black walked away with about US$ 82 811
after her two-week sojourn at the All England Tennis Club this year.
And according to the latest Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Prize Money
List for 2010, which was released from New York yesterday, Black has made a
total of US$ 399 335 (US$ 201 031 in the women’s doubles and US$ 198 304 in the
mixed doubles) on the road this year.
She has made the US$ 201 301 in the women’s doubles after
playing in 15 tournaments this year with six different partners - American
Liezel Huber, Shahar Peer of Israel, China’s Zi Yan, Elena Vesnina of Russia,
Raymond of the United States and Slovakia’s Hantuchova.
The beginning of the year saw Black winning two women’s
doubles titles in Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia, with Huber
before the two decided to go their separate ways towards the end of April,
ending a five-year marriage.
Black and Huber ended their longtime relationship after they
had also managed to reach the final of the Australian Open in which they lost
to the Williams sisters - Serena and Venus - at the end of January.
After severing her ties with Huber, Black tried five other
different combinations in Peer, Yan, Raymond, Vesnina and Hantuchova without
enjoying much success.
She only managed to "click" with Raymond who helped
her to win her third straight Aegon Classic doubles title in Birmingham,
England, during the second week of June. In that grasscourt tournament, Black
and Raymond beat the American pair of Huber and Bethanie Mattek in the final
which ended prematurely after Huber sustained a knee injury in the second set.
Black and Raymond were leading 6-3, 3-2 when Huber decided to
call it quits, handing the title to the Zimbabwean-American combo who went on
to collect the winners’ cheque for US$ 11 000.
After playing in Birmingham, Black went on to play in another small
tournament in Eastbourne, England, this time with Hantuchova and the pair lost
in the quarter-finals to Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 7-6, 6-2.
Black and Hantuchova earned US$ 4 750 in Eastbourne before
heading to London to play at Wimbledon where they only managed to reach the
third round of the women’s, picking up US$ 25 622 for their efforts.
Black then went on to collect US$ 140 000 after winning the
mixed doubles title at Wimbledon with India’s Paes on Sunday While, Paes has
lifted the trophy twice previously - with American tennis legend Martina
Navratilova in 2003 and Raymond in 1999, Black won it by pairing his brother
Wayne in 2004.
On Sunday, Paes played his 23rd Grand Slam final and this was
his sixth mixed doubles Grand Slam title.
Paes said on Sunday that winning the title for the third time
was an "awesome feeling".
Speaking about his partner Black, he added: "Cara is
definitely my favourite partner, she is one of the nicest human beings."
"It is all for supporters that I keep going. I love
entertaining people. It’s my job to work hard," Paes told reporters after
the match.
2010 07 05
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/zimbabwe/5559.html
05 July, 2010 02:19:00
By Robert I. Rotberg
Special to GlobalPost
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Moreover, the so-called unity government of Mugabe’s party and
the opposition led by PM Morgan Tsvangirai is wildly disunited.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
BOSTON
Neither the forces of world order, the powers of Africa, nor
the global spirit of democracy has managed to curb Robert G. Mugabe’s
dictatorship in Zimbabwe.
Indeed, the once prosperous country is an increasingly
desperate place, with intensifying poverty, deteriorating life expectancies and
health outcomes, 90 percent unemployment, renewed ruling party brutalities against
hapless civilians and opponents, and no likelihood of any amelioration.
Moreover, the so-called unity government of Mugabe’s party and
the opposition led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is wildly disunited.
Unlike the compromise bilateral government in Kenya, Zimbabwe’s is entirely a
fig leaf for continued unimpeded power by Mugabe and his henchmen.
South Africa, first under former president Thabo Mbeki and now
under President Jacob Zuma, was supposed to encourage substantive change by
mediating between Mugabe and Tsvangirai and between their respective parties.
But that hope has long been demonstrated to be a chimera. Nothing is happening,
and the corrupt followers of Mugabe are getting more corrupt on the sale of
blood diamonds while the bulk of the country’s population either goes hungry or
flees to South Africa.
Mugabe’s men even managed in June to subvert an international
inquiry into the diamond business in eastern Zimbabwe and to persuade a South
African investigator to permit, under the Kimberley Process, the licit sale of
diamonds mined under shady auspices by Mugabe’s cronies.
Since the African Union and the Southern African Development
Community (controlled by South Africa) are unwilling to label Mugabe a tyrant
and unwilling to critique his failures of commission and omission, only
non-Africans can possibly return Zimbabwe to democracy and to its people.
China is strongly supporting Mugabe, however, which makes U.N.
condemnation and effective sanctions difficult. So are oil powers such as
Libya. Mugabe is now backed by the very worst of the worst.
What can be done ?.
Although the U.S. is in no position, given Afghanistan and
Iraq, to intervene unilaterally in Zimbabwe, even if there were any will to do
so, Washington can still be a positive catalyst.
President Barack Obama has had Zimbabwe on his foreign policy
radar, and for the right reasons. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken
forcibly about the Zimbabwe tragedy. She has asked President Zuma for his help
and cooperation. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson, once
ambassador to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, has also spoken clearly about Zimbabwe, even
to Mugabe directly in 2009. At that time Mugabe famously called Carson “an
idiot,” and walked out. But such jaw-boning has not yet brought about change or
the hope of action.
Nevertheless, Secretary Clinton’s voice is strong and true,
and widely influential in key capitals in Africa. She should urgently declare
Washington’s desire to help to make the unity government in Zimbabwe work by
meeting with Zuma and the heads of state and government of the SADC region.
She should appoint a strong roving ambassador to be her agent
within southern Africa for as long as it takes to create an effective
partnership government within Zimbabwe and to reduce Mugabe’s despotic grip.
Her enunciated goal should be the end of violence and human rights abuses, the
transfer of effective power to Prime Minister Tsvangirai, and a rapid
diminution of Mugabe's presidential authoritarianism.
The appointment of a roving ambassador would demonstrate
Washington’s commitment to the southern Africa and her desire to persuade South
Africa and the other nations of the region that the U. S. is serious about
achieving improvements to the regime in Zimbabwe.
A roving ambassador would provide the kind of close attention
to the issue that Carson, with so many other African concerns, and the
individual ambassadors in the region, cannot.
Washington holds carrots and sticks to support such an
ambassadorial approach. If and when Zimbabwe is better governed, existing
“smart” sanctions against Mugabe’s henchmen and their relatives can slowly be
lifted. Additional incentives would include new funds with which to jump start
the faltering Zimbabwean economy.
Washington can encourage SADC to ban official aircraft
carrying Mugabe and his entourages from crossing neighboring airspace, thus
ending his and his wife’s penchant for shopping trips to Dubai, Hong Kong
(where they own expensive property), Kuala Lumpur, Singapore (where Zimbabwean
diamonds are allegedly converted into property), Rome, Copenhagen, and so on.
With a little persuasion of South Africa, Namibia, and
Mozambique, Washington could confine Mugabe to Zimbabwe and deny him medical
treatment in South Africa or beyond. A roving ambassador with Secretary
Clinton’s stamp could make these cases, and demonstrate finally that the U. S.
cares.
2010 07 06
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/%E2%80%98Naomi-has-six-blood-diamonds%E2%80%99-29701-3-1.html
Published on: July 06, 2010 at 02:40
WASHINGTON (Commodity Online):
Till now Zimbabwe was the main country which has been drawing
flak from across the world for the blood diamonds from its now infamous Marange
diamond fields. But now, super model Naomi Campbell is in the eye of a storm
for accepting blood diamonds as gift.
A former aide of Naomi Campbell has claimed the supermodel
received six blood diamonds from former Libyan president Charles Taylor.
Carole White, owner of Premier Model Management, who was with
Campbell on a trip to South Africa in 1997 said, “It (the diamonds) came up
over dinner. I heard it. Charles Taylor was there and Naomi was seated next to
him and then there was the minister of defence from his country and I was
seated next to him,” said White. “I was dealing with everything - how was she going
to get them, because Taylor didn’t have them in his possession ?.
I was asked by Taylor and Naomi
to organise letting his people, who were going to bring the
diamonds from Johannesburg to Cape Town, into the guest compound where we were
staying. The diamonds came that night.”
Campbell has been asked to testify on July 29 in the case
against Taylor. The former president is accused of fuelling a civil war in
Sierra Leone.
Over the years we have become accustomed to seeing Naomi
Campbell in court. In 2000 she pleaded guilty to attacking her assistant with a
telephone in a hotel room. Six years later she admitted hitting her housekeeper
with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone, causing an injury to the head that
required several stitches. In 2008 she was arrested at London’s Heathrow
airport on suspicion of assaulting a police officer after one of her bags was
lost. Then, earlier this year, a limousine driver filed a report with the New
York City police department claiming that Campbell had slapped and punched him.
Campbell’s court appearances seem to have become a regular
occurrence in the calendar. But not even the most seasoned Campbell watcher
could have predicted that she would one day be pursued by the courts in The
Hague.
And yet last week the model was ordered to give evidence at
the war crimes trial of Liberia’s ex-president, Charles Taylor. The UN-backed
special court for Sierra Leone issued a subpoena forcing Campbell to appear
after allegations surfaced that she was given a so-called blood diamond by Taylor
at a dinner party held by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1997.
Campbell has consistently refused to volunteer her own
testimony to the tribunal, furiously walking out of a recent television
interview with ABC News when the reporter had the temerity to ask about the
allegations. It seemed a strange reaction for a woman who, having turned 40
earlier this year, has tried to distance herself from a youth-obsessed
modelling industry and reinvent herself as a charity campaigner.
She is a global ambassador for the White Ribbon Alliance,
which aims to raise awareness of the number of women who die each year
following complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. She has also
campaigned on behalf of Aids charities, and raised money to tackle global poverty.
In February she staged a catwalk show at London fashion week to support victims
of the Haiti earthquake. So assiduously has Campbell developed her charity
profile that she now counts Sarah Brown, the wife of the former prime minister,
as a close friend.
Campbell was born in Streatham, south London. Her part-Chinese
father was unnamed on her birth certificate and walked out when Campbell’s
Jamaican-born mother, Valerie, was four months pregnant. Valerie danced in a
1970s go-go troupe and was on the road for long periods - until the age of 10,
Campbell was largely brought up by friends and relatives. Her way out of
Streatham came about by chance. When she was 15, she was spotted in Covent
Garden by a model scout and signed up for a shoot with Elle magazine, whose
then editor, Sally Brampton, later recalled the gawky teenager as a bird of
paradise. Within five years, Campbell had earned her supermodel stripes,
appearing on countless magazine covers, posing nude for Playboy and starring in
George Michael’s 1990 Freedom music video alongside Cindy Crawford and Linda
Evangelista.
2010 07 05
Political commentator Charles Mangongera said the MDC formation
of FM Biti and Prime Minister Tsvangirai might be tempted to overlook abuses in
Marange so as to secure the financial resources to rebuild the economy
Sandra Nyaira
Washington 05 July 2010
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti has issued a statement
saying that the Kimberly Process is punishing ordinary Zimbabweans by
withholding certification of diamonds from the controversial Marange field.
Dismissing the notion that diamonds from Marange are
"blood diamonds," Biti writes in a newsletter of the formation of the
Movement for Democratic Change of which he is secretary general that Kimberly
must allow Zimbabwe to sell its diamonds, but should be present in the country
to resolve issues now barring KP certification.
A recent Kimberly meeting in Israel failed to come to a
consensus on certifying diamonds from the Marange field, where the military in
control are accused of human rights violations and smuggling of stones.
Biti said that by failing to issue certification, Kimberly is
punishing ordinary Zimbabweans, rather than the elite that controls the diamond
field, which he says will continue to sell stones illegally, shortchanging
citizens.
The minister said however that human rights abuses including
alleged forced labor, and smuggling, must be dealt with, and legal claims by
London-based African Consolidated Resources over mining rights must be settled.
Harare-based political commentator Charles Mangongera said the
MDC formation of Biti and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai may be tempted to
overlook abuses in Marange to obtain the resources to rebuild the economy.
In a related development, the Zimbabwean Embassy in Windhoek,
Namibia, said Harare might pull out of the Kimberly Process if it is denied
permission to sell Marange diamonds.
President Mugabe and Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu have issued
much the same threat at various points in the long-running saga, but political
analyst Brilliant Mhlanga says such a move would be counter-productive.
CONSTITUTION WATCH
CONTENT SERIES 1/2010
[4th July 2010]
Founding
Principles of a Constitution
Talking Point No. 2 for the Constitution Outreach is “Founding
Principles of the Constitution” which are described as “those values that
citizens commit themselves to their adherence. They are the foundations
of the Constitution and they reflect the manner in which the people desire to
be governed.”
Introduction
Many constitutions contain
underlying principles which are fundamental to the entire constitutional
structure. Sometimes these principles are unstated and have to be
inferred from the provisions of the constitution, but often — particularly in
modern constitutions — they are stated expressly. The Constitution of the
United States may have served as a model, with its preamble stating the
following constitutional objectives: “to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common
defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to
ourselves and our Posterity.” And of course there is the famous
statement in the American Declaration of Independence, that everyone is endowed
with certain unalienable rights, among them “Life, Liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness”.
Purpose
of Statement of Principles
A statement of principles is not
mere window-dressing, because if the principles are set out clearly enough they
may prevent governments from enacting constitutional amendments that run
counter to them. This is the so-called “pillars of the Constitution”
argument, which maintains that it is not permissible to amend a constitution in
such a way as to remove any of its pillars or core values. If the
Founding Principles are stated clearly they become the framework in which the
Judiciary interpret the Constitution. The argument was developed by the
Indian Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution of India, and it has been
adopted elsewhere. Sometimes, to put the inviolability of the principles
beyond doubt, a constitution states expressly that they cannot be abrogated [repealed
or cancelled]. The French Constitution, for example, prohibits any
amendment that affects the republican form of government. And the German
Constitution prohibits any limitation on the constitutional protection of human
dignity, or any constitutional amendment that changes the democratic and
law-based nature of the German state. The Namibian Constitution prohibits
any amendment that would limit or abolish the rights protected in the
Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
What
Principles are Usually Protected?
The principles that are
protected in a constitution vary considerably from country to country.
The Ugandan
Constitution has an enormous list, set out in 29 articles, ranging from
encouraging citizens to participate actively in their own governance, through
the defence of national unity, peace, stability and national sovereignty, all
the way to protection of the aged and the promotion of recreation and sports
and good water management.
The Malawian Constitution,
in contrast, impliedly protects only the separation of powers, the rule of law
and “the values which underlie an open and democratic society”.
In the South
African Constitution the first section declares that the State is founded
on the following values:
·
Human dignity, the achievement of
equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms.
·
Non-racialism and non-sexism.
·
Supremacy of the constitution and the
rule of law.
·
Universal adult suffrage, a national
common voters roll, regular elections and a multi-party system of democratic
government, to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness.
The present Zimbabwean
Constitution contains no express statement of fundamental principles, and
it is difficult to discern any after the amendments to which it has been
subjected since 1980.
The draft
constitution drawn up by the Constitutional Commission in 1999 did specify
certain principles as fundamental, and went on to state that they could be
amended only with the approval of the people voting in a referendum.
These principles may be summarised as follows:
·
Authority of the people: State power derives
from the people and must be exercised within lawful bounds.
·
National unity, peace and stability: The
Government must promote national unity, peace and stability, in particular by
integrating the peoples of Zimbabwe while recognising their diversity and
tolerating their differing customs, traditions and beliefs.
·
Democratic principles:
All citizens must be encouraged to participate in government and must have
access to positions of leadership. Government institutions must be
broad-based and national but (perhaps inconsistently) functions and
responsibilities must be devolved to the people at appropriate levels.
·
Rule of law:
Everyone, including public officers, must observe the rule of law, and no one
is above the law.
The so-called
“Kariba Draft” constitution repeated these principles.
The NCA draft constitution also states certain fundamental
values, but they are much closer to those in the South African
Constitution. As in the Constitutional Commission draft, these principles
would be amendable only with the approval of a national referendum.
·
Supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law.
·
The inherent dignity and worth of each human being.
·
Universal adult suffrage, multi-party system of
democratic government and regular free elections.
·
Equal status of all persons.
·
Respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms.
·
National unity, peace and stability (this is not
protected in the South African constitution).
·
Devolution of governmental functions to the provinces
and other appropriate levels (nor is this principle).
What
Fundamental Principles Should be Protected in Our New Constitution?
Before we try to
answer this question, some points need to be made:
·
If the new Constitution is to protect fundamental
principles, then those principles should be stated expressly; they should
not have to be deduced from a minute examination of the provisions of the
constitution. If they are not made absolutely clear in the constitution
then they may be ignored by politicians and politically-motivated judges.
·
The principles must be truly fundamental, underlying
the entire constitutional structure. They should, moreover, have a close
relationship to the constitutional structure and should not merely restate
human rights that are protected elsewhere in the constitution, e.g. in a
Declaration of Rights.
·
A constitution must reflect the country’s history, if
the sins and misfortunes of the past are to be avoided in the future. The
fundamental principles should be framed so as to overcome our past.
In the light of the above, here is a selection of fundamental principles
that should be considered:
·
Supremacy of the constitution. This is
worth emphasising as a fundamental principle, in order to bring about a
constitutional State in which all State institutions respect the
Constitution. The Constitution has had scant respect up to now. It
has been amended 19 times, and the latest amendment, in so far as it limited
the number of Ministers, was instantly ignored.
·
Observance of the rule of law. This is a
far-reaching principle because, although the rule of law is a vague concept, it
implies that:
·
everyone, including the State and its officers, must
obey the law;
·
no one is above the law.
·
Respect for the inherent and equal dignity and worth
of each human being. This is another important principle,
particularly in the light of the country’s history before Independence.
And it may be worth specifying separately another principle which arises out of
it:
·
Tolerance for the views, practices and cultures of
other people. Tolerance has always been in short supply in Zimbabwe.
·
Advancement of fundamental human rights and freedoms. So stated,
this principle would oblige the Government to advance, rather than simply
respect, human rights.
·
A multi-party system of democratic government based on universal
adult suffrage and regular, free and fair elections. All the elements of
this principle — a multi-party system, democracy, universal adult suffrage, and
regular free and fair elections — need to be emphasised in the light of
Zimbabwe’s history.
·
Separation of powers between the Legislature,
which enacts laws, the Executive, which puts them into practice, and the
Judiciary, which interprets them. Strictly speaking, separation of powers
is an element of the rule of law, but it would be a good idea to mention it
specifically since our present Constitution as amended violates this principle.
·
Devolution of governmental functions to the provinces
and down to other appropriate levels. Zimbabwe has had an over-centralised
government for many years, and it is high time for power to be devolved.
Furthermore, a new constitution must take account of the wishes of people in
the west and east of the country for greater autonomy.
·
Openness in government. All governmental processes
must be subject to public scrutiny so far as possible, consistent with national
security and the protection of the privacy of individuals. Such openness
and transparency is essential to a proper democracy, and Zimbabweans have never
enjoyed it. Limitations must be very specific, not broad and general.
·
Respect for accrued or existing rights, which should not
be abrogated or diminished without good cause and, where appropriate, adequate
compensation. This principle should apply not only to property rights but
also to rights such as citizenship. Governments both before and after
Independence have been prepared to ride roughshod over existing rights to suit
their temporary political interests, and they should be compelled by the new
Constitution to think carefully before they do it again.
Some Suggested Principles Need Particularly Careful
Thought
National
unity, peace and stability. National unity is a
dangerous concept. All too often when a political leader calls for
national unity, he means that those with views that differ from his own should
keep their mouths shut. In other words, “national unity” is an excuse for
intolerance. Peace, though a very good thing, cannot be achieved through
a constitution. And stability, like national unity, is a principle that
can easily be misused by politicians – “ f we’re voted out of power it will
destabilise the country — so let’s cancel the election!”. All things
considered, it may be worth omitting this principle or if it is included, it
should be put in such a way that it cannot be misused.
New Constitution Must Itself Conform to Founding
Principles Adopted
In conclusion, one further point must be made. Our new
constitution must not specify fundamental principles and then proceed to ignore
them. If, for example, separation of powers is stated to be a fundamental
principle, then the new constitution should not go on to give the President and
the rest of the Executive extensive legislative powers or the right to appoint
members of the legislature. Nor should it give the Legislature absolute
power, free from judicial scrutiny, to punish people for contempt. If the
principles specify independence of the Judiciary then other provisions of the
Constitution must not contradict, but rather give effect to, this principle.
In other words, if the
new constitution is to state fundamental principles then they must be
strengthened in the Bill of Rights and observed in framing of all other aspects
of the Constitution itself.
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