Biti’s offices again besieged by rowdy ZANU PF crowd

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Tichaona Sibanda
27 June 2011

Over a thousand ZANU PF supporters, bussed in mainly from rural areas,
stormed the offices of the Ministry of Finance on Monday and shockingly
threatened to beat up or kill Minister Tendai Biti.

The ZANU PF thugs, who held office workers hostage from 11am until early
evening, sang derogatory songs against Biti and his MDC-T party. The crowd,
which initially gathered at the ZANU PF provincial offices along Fourth
Street in central Harare, marched to Biti’s office building under a police
escort.

Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa said when the protesters got to the offices
they sealed all entry and exit points. With the help of the police a few of
their ring leaders went up to the sixth floor where Biti’s office is housed.
The Minister, who had been tipped off, had by then escaped unnoticed from
the building.

‘What was shocking was how the police were complicit in this protest. As
they moved up the floors to Biti’s office the police left other officers to
guard the floors in case the Minister used the stairways to try and escape,’
Muchemwa said.

He added; ‘The protesters were demanding to hear from Biti why government
was not prepared to increase salaries for civil servants.’

Muchemwa said at one time the leaders of the demonstration were heard
complaining about why Webster Shamu, the ZANU PF national commissar, was
ordering them to end the protest.

Our correspondent who mingled with the crowd overheard numerous telephone
conversations between the protest leaders and senior ZANU PF officials, one
of them believed to be Shamu.

‘I could hear them say lets finish with Biti today, lets not end our
protests now because Shamu is ordering us to back off. Why did he (Shamu)
send us here in the first place when the business is not yet finished,’
Muchemwa added.

This is the third time in three months that Biti’s offices have been
besieged by ZANU PF supporters and war vets.

Two weeks ago a group of war vets surrounded Biti’s offices demanding that
he sign a petition calling for lifting of targeted western sanctions against
Robert Mugabe and his cronies.

Jameson Timba freed after court room drama

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Lance Guma
27 June 2011

The Minister of State in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Office, Jameson
Timba, was on Sunday freed by a special session of the High Court following
his controversial arrest on Friday for allegedly calling Robert Mugabe a
liar.

Justice Joseph Musakwa ordered Timba’s release, saying there had been a
violation of his rights.
"He was not informed of the charges he was facing. Assurances by the AG
(Attorney General's Office) that he will be taken to court tomorrow (Monday)
does not cure that were there are breaches of his rights. Therefore, there
is no justification for his continued detention," Justice Musakwa ruled.

Despite this order there was court room drama for over an hour as police
officers and Timba’s lawyers clashed over attempts to take the minister back
to the police station. Timba and his defence team resisted the move, fearing
it was just a ploy to re-arrest him. Police reinforcements were called in
and they then took him to the police station for what they claimed were
‘discharging formalities’.

Writing on his Facebook page soon after his release Timba said; “I am out
and resting at home after 2.5 days without food and water. Didn't realise
the power of the mind over matter. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and
support. Know that my resolve to fight for democratic change has been
strengthened. When you see Jonathan Moyo tell him I will see him in Luanda
for round two at the next SADC summit in August and he will come second best
again.”

A few weeks ago Timba allegedly accused 87 year old Mugabe of lying about
the outcome of the SADC Summit in South Africa this month. Tsvangirai also
told supporters at a rally in Gweru that Mugabe had lied about the outcome
of the SADC summit and ZANU PF MP for Tsholotsho North and politburo member
Jonathan Moyo, urged police to arrest both Tsvangirai and Timba.

Meanwhile Tsvangirai told thousands of party supporters at a rally in
Bulawayo on Sunday that he would rather rot in jail than pull his party out
of the coalition government.

“Today Moyo is behaving like the leader of ZANU PF. He is saying arrest
Timba and he gets arrested. He is also saying arrest Tsvangirai. They know
that if they arrest Tsvangirai, MDC might pull out of the coalition
government and that might be its end. That is what they want. If they ever
arrest me and incarcerate me in the cells, let me rot in there, their plans
should never succeed,” he said.

Tsvangirai said they went into the coalition “knowing that everything would
be a fight, foot by foot. We are not going to be intimidated.”

Tsvangirai believes ZANU PF are deliberately provoking his party to cause
the collapse of the coalition and give Mugabe an excuse to call for
elections this year, without allowing room for adequate reforms to take
place.

Meanwhile South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on
President Jacob Zuma, the SADC-appointed mediator to Zimbabwe, “to encourage
the SADC to use the mechanisms at its disposal to ensure that elections do
not go ahead in Zimbabwe until key democratic reforms have been made.

Athol Trollip, the DA Parliamentary Leader, said; “South Africa needs to
play a central role in taking a decisive stand against ongoing political
repression in Zimbabwe as reports of intimidation, violence and voter fraud
continue. This most recent incident is a powerful illustration of President
Robert Mugabe’s determination to entrench repressive, tyrannical rule in
Zimbabwe.”

The Daily News on Sunday is meanwhile reporting that the SADC region is so
worried about developments in Zimbabwe “an emergency meeting could be held
soon to see how they can mitigate the anarchy.” The paper quotes sources
saying Zuma is “staggered” by the turn of events in the country, which
include the arrest of Timba and threats by army generals directed at
Tsvangirai.

I faced hell: Timba

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Everson Mushava, Staff Writer
Monday, 27 June 2011 15:37

HARARE - Jameson Timba, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s
office, says he faced hell while under “illegal detention” where he spent
two days without eating and drinking water but maintains that his ordeal has
made him stronger.

Timba was held for two days without charge and without being told why he had
been arrested.

Police just dumped him at two different holding cells.

He was only charged after High Court Judge Joseph Musakwa ordered his
release.

Looking like he had just come from hell after spending two days without food
and drink, Timba said he experienced the horrors of the country’s holding
cells and said his arrest was a determined attempt to derail democratic
change in Zimbabwe.

Explaining his dramatic “abduction” after his release yesterday, Timba told
the Daily News that he was taken on his way out of his offices at Charter
House in Harare.

“Three policemen approached me and introduced themselves as police officers
and they took me to the Law and Order Section at Harare Central. They never
informed me of the crime I was supposed to have committed.

“When my lawyer (Selby Hwacha) came to the Law and Order Section, they took
me to another room downstairs and told my lawyer that they were not aware of
my whereabouts.

“They then took me to Matapi Police Station and I spent Friday night there.
The police never asked me or questioned me and did not tell why they were
illegally holding me.

“I was not allowed access to my lawyers and also to my relatives. I did not
have access to food and water.

“The following day (Saturday) I was taken to St Mary’s Police Station in
Chitungwiza where I could also not eat, drink or even bath. What I can also
tell you is that the holding cells are inhuman, filthy and they require
structural and procedural rehabilitation,” said Timba, who took his fist
facial wash at the High Court tapes in Harare.

Timba, who was brought to court in an open truck said after he was released
by the High Court,  he was taken back to the police station to be formally
charged with undermining the authority of the president. The police are
alleging that after the Sadc summit, Timba said Mugabe was a liar while
speaking to the Sunday Times of South Africa.

But a visibly dehydrated Timba said his incarceration would not distract
him.

“Let me say to you that this unlawful detention has strengthened my resolve
to fight for democratic change in this country. We must fight all the
provisions that limit freedom of expression, association and assembly.

“This has also confirmed that Zimbabwe needs a time bound task based roadmap
to a free and fair election which must contain significant electoral
reforms, media reforms and a return to rule of law. Every citizen must feel
protected by the law.

“What was striking about this is the fact that at the two police stations I
was detained, there are some MDC supporters held there and all of them say
they did not commit any crimes. They were arrested because they are MDC,”
said a defiant Timba.

There was drama at the High Court yesterday when defiant policemen from the
Law and Order clashed with Timba and his lawyers when they demanded to take
the MDC minister to Central Police Station “to perform some detention
discharge procedures” soon after Musakwa delivered his judgement.

Timba was desperate to go home soon after the High Court order but police
insisted on taking him to the police station to complete release papers.

The lawyers were refusing saying they suspected the police wanted to
formally arrest him.

Lawyers Selby Hwacha and Thabani Mpofu vigorously refused to have them take
away until the police sought reinforcements from another group of police
officers who arrived at the High Court and took Timba away.

The lawyers were arguing that taking Timba to the station was in violation
of the High Court order.

The Timba team camped inside the High Court for more than 30 minutes but
later gave in.

Hwacha, suggested representing the minister at the police station while he
was allowed to go home but again police said no until Timba gave in and was
taken to the police station where he was charged and released.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe Government Is Not Sharing the Power to Arrest Rivals

http://www.nytimes.com/

By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: June 26, 2011

JOHANNESBURG — Jameson Timba, a senior aide to Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe, had just returned home on Friday from a conference
in Barcelona on the rule of law when plainclothes policemen — answerable to
President Robert Mugabe — arrested him in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Mr.
Timba was accused of a common crime: insulting Mr. Mugabe.

Over the next two days, said Mr. Timba, the shadow foreign minister in the
Movement for Democratic Change, the longtime rival to Mr. Mugabe’s party,
ZANU-PF, he was denied access to his lawyer, deprived of food and water, and
held in a chilly cell with only a thin blanket to share with seven other
detainees. He said they stretched it over their feet as they lay side by
side on the concrete floor, trying to sleep.

“We have a Shona saying,” Mr. Timba said Sunday evening after he was
released. “When you plant your maize in a burned field, you must never be
afraid of getting your backside dirty,” a reference to the dirty business of
politics.

Mr. Timba has joined the growing ranks of M.D.C. members of Parliament who
have spent time inside Zimbabwe’s dank, lice-infested jails since regional
leaders pressured their party — whose supporters were beaten, tortured and
even killed during the 2008 election campaign — to join Mr. Mugabe in a
power-sharing government.

But Mr. Mugabe was unwilling to share his powers over the police and the
criminal justice system — and more than a quarter of the party’s members of
Parliament have been arrested since agreeing to join him.

Mr. Timba outraged ZANU-PF officials a week ago by suggesting that their
characterization of a June 12 meeting of regional leaders on Zimbabwe’s
long-running political crisis — as a vindication for Mr. Mugabe — was
dishonest.

The Sunday Times, a South African newspaper, reported on June 19 that Mr.
Timba had called Mr. Mugabe a liar for that depiction of the meeting. A
close reading of the story showed that Mr. Timba had pointed out what he
said were distortions “peddled by some in ZANU-PF” but had not singled out
the president.

But within days, a ZANU-PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, was calling for
the arrest of Mr. Timba and Mr. Tsvangirai for undermining the authority of
Mr. Mugabe.

“It’s totally unacceptable for Tsvangirai and Jameson Timba to call comrade
Mugabe a liar,” Mr. Moyo told ZBC, the television network that is a state
monopoly, according to a report in Newsday, an independent newspaper in
Zimbabwe.

Mr. Mugabe and his loyalists have chafed since March 31, when President
Jacob Zuma of South Africa, the region’s mediator on Zimbabwe, persuaded
several other heads of state in a regional alliance, the Southern African
Development Community, or S.A.D.C., to agree to a communiqué that, without
naming Mr. Mugabe, was directed at him and his party.

Issued in Livingstone, Zambia, it stated sternly that “there must be an
immediate end of violence, intimidation, hate speech, harassment and any
other form of action that contradicts the letter and spirit” of the global
political agreement that governs the power-sharing deal.

Mr. Mugabe, used to being treated deferentially as an elder statesman,
lashed out at Mr. Zuma. And in the months that followed, he, his ministers
and the men who run the newspapers he controls have coordinated their
efforts to undo what has come to be known, simply, as Livingstone.

Instead, when leaders from all 15 nations that belong to S.A.D.C. met here
on June 12, they carried out the action plan put forth in Livingstone,
assigning a team drawn from nations in the region to monitor Zimbabwe’s
progress toward safeguarding freedom of the press, human rights and free
elections.

The state-controlled news media in Harare reported that the regional
alliance had rejected Livingstone — a contention Mr. Zuma’s adviser, Lindiwe
Zulu, contradicted. In fact, Mr. Timba said, in the closed-door meeting Mr.
Zuma reiterated the relevance of Livingstone and read aloud the passage
calling for an end to violence.

After years of disappointment with the regional group’s “extraordinary
summits” on Zimbabwe, which have issued many ineffective communiqués, M.D.C.
officials were giddy. Mr. Timba, wearing his black bowler hat, could hardly
contain his glee.

“We’re fantastically happy!” he exclaimed.

But the generals who coordinated the 2008 campaign of violence that forced
Mr. Tsvangirai from the presidential runoff election were not happy. A
senior general told the state-controlled newspaper The Herald last week that
Mr. Tsvangirai was a national security threat — and that Mr. Mugabe must
rule until he died or decided to step down.

At the World Justice Forum in Barcelona last week, Mr. Tsvangirai “said the
rule of law was in intensive care in Zimbabwe,” Mr. Timba recalled. “No
sooner had I landed than I proved his point.”

When Mr. Timba was produced in court on Sunday, the judge, Joseph Musakwa,
ruled that Mr. Timba’s detention was unlawful and ordered his release.

Mr. Timba said that after his release he picked up a liquid that kills lice,
poured it in his bath and took a long soak. An optimist like many in his
party, he said he found reason to hope that his arrest was another sign of
the desperation of men on the wrong side of history.

“What I see is the beginning of the end of ZANU-PF,” he said.

ZANU PF youth terrorise Harare residents meeting

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by Irene Madongo
27 June 2011

People who attended a Harare Residents Trust meeting (HRT) were left
terrified after ZANU PF youths gate crashed the event and beat up guests and
members.

The meeting was held on Saturday at the Mbare Netball Complex, with the aim
of discussing issues affecting residents, such as the problems with power
shedding and refuse collection. Officials from local government and the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority were also among those present.

However, a ZANU PF mob appeared and unleashed terror. Among those who were
severely beaten was Precious Shumba, HRT co-ordinator and founder, who had
to be taken to hospital. Although now discharged he is still too unwell to
attend work.

Simbarashe Majamanda, the HRT’s membership officer, said: “A group of ZANU
PF youths came to Mbare Netball Complex, singing revolutionary songs with
missiles and they blocked the exit. After five minutes they stormed into the
stadia and started beating up people, starting with the people who were at
the VIP stand and they moved onto the participants. People started jumping
over the durawall and in the process so many were injured.”

Majamanda said those present were left traumatised. “The violence that broke
out traumatised some of our members who were injured and it had terrified
people,” he said.

“This is a clear example that violence still characterises Zimbabwe’s
communities and even if we are to prepare for an election in Zimbabwe, you
realise that violence is going to characterise our communities,” he
explained.

He added that ZANU PF’s Chipangano youth wing were having a meeting in Mbare
on the same day, and the HRT had been informed that the youth members
planned to cause trouble.

Victims urge government to end police torture

http://www.swradioafrica.com

by Irene Madongo
27 June 2011

At an event to mark the United Nations International Day in Support of
Victims of Torture, human rights activists and victims of political violence
have made more calls for the government to stop the police abusing
civilians.

They also said they want the government to ratify the UN convention against
torture, which bans the use of torture by states. It also calls for
perpetrators to be brought to account and measures to be put in place to
prevent it happening again.

On Monday around 500 people gathered in central Bulawayo for a prayer
meeting in support of victims and survivors of torture. The meeting was held
at the Presbyterian Church and was attended by individuals, as well as
various organisations including the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Women
and Men of Zimbabwe Arise and Zim Rights.

Victims gave moving accounts of their experiences and Abel Chikomo, Director
of the Zim Human Rights NGO Forum, said despite the existence of a coalition
government in Zimbabwe, torture by state agents continued and the government
still did not want to ratify the UN convention.

“We have not seen any move towards the ratification of the convention
against torture, for instance, we have not seen an end to torture and the
use of torture in our country,” he said. “We actually feel the government
has not done anything and is not doing anything to stop torture.”

“We continue to call on the Zimbabwe government to stop security forces or
security officials, agents, the police, intelligence from using torture as a
way of extracting information or confessions from accused persons, for
instance,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s police and intelligence agents are notorious for torturing human
rights activists and those opposed to ZANU PF, particularly supporters of
the MDC. In recent weeks the MDC-T has complained that several of its
activists, held over the controversial death of a policeman, were tortured
so severely they could barely walk.

Machipisa violence victims still battling with pain

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Machipisa violence victims still battling with pain- MDC Youth Assembly

Two MDC activists who were severely assaulted by Zanu PF thugs at Machipisa
shopping centre on the 4th of June 2011 are still in pain after sustaining
serious injuries.
The MDC activists Raymond Saidi and Austin Masanza both of ward three in
Mbare constituency were severely assaulted by five Zanu PF activists at
Machipisa Zanu PF district offices. The two had gone to attend Real Change
Peace rally at the Zimbabwe grounds and were passing through Machipisa
shopping centre on their way to the venue of the rally. Clad in the party
regalia they were dragged into the Zanu PF offices where they were severely
assaulted with iron bars and broomsticks.
The matter was reported at Machipisa police station who were reluctant to
pursue the case till it was reported to senior officer at the station
leading to the arrest of one of the perpetrators. The other four were
believed to have escaped and have not been arrested to date.
The two activists sustained serious injuries from the assault and were
rushed to Avenues clinic where they spend one week before being discharged.
They are still having serious pains and are going for review tomorrow.
We condemn the selective application of the law with regards to political
violence. The murder of a police officer has led to the arrest of innocent
people in the name of investigation but this matter has not even been
pursued with seriousness. The MDC Youth Assembly calls for the Zimbabwe
Republic Police to show seriousness when it comes to maintaining real peace
in the country and adhering to the rule of law.

Raymond Saidi and Austin Masanza

Kill me: PM

http://www.dailynews.co.zw

By Pindai Dube
Monday, 27 June 2011 15:30

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has warned rogue elements in the
army and police that they will be history if they try to kill him, a week
after a top army commander Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba labelled
him a national security threat.

A tough talking Tsvangirai challenged military generals to shoot him, boldly
warning of dire consequences if that were to happen.

Addressing a packed White City Stadium in Bulawayo yesterday, the former
trade unionist said he was aware of secret plans to both arrest and to kill
him as exclusively revealed by the Daily News last week.

The defiant Tsvangirai said such an action would only strengthen the resolve
of Zimbabweans and also make the MDC stronger.

“Why don’t you come and shoot me? Here I am,” said Tsvangirai. “But I tell
you, if they kill me, that is the end of them. They should stop scaring us
and intimidating us with empty threats because we are not scared,” he said.

“They have no right to be intimidating us. The fact that they are resorting
to violence is a clear admission that they have failed,” he added.

Nyikayaramba, one of Mugabe’s most loyal and zealous supporters, last week
described Tsvangirai as a security threat.  He went on to say that army
generals would “do anything” to keep Mugabe in power.

“Tsvangirai doesn’t pose a political threat in any way in Zimbabwe, but is a
major security threat,” the errant general said after Tsvangirai told army
commanders to resign and face him in an open political contest.

Yesterday, TsvangiraiKill me: Tsvangirai described rogue elements in state
security institutions as “daydreamers”, saying their threats were aimed at
intimidating his MDC party into quitting government.

The popular former trade union leader said Zanu PF hawks such as serial
political flip-flopper and former junior information minister Jonathan Moyo,
who were baying for his blood, were using security agents to frustrate the
MDC out of government and to try and force early elections.

“Today, Jonathan Moyo is behaving like the leader of Zanu PF. He is saying
arrest (Jameson) Timba and he gets arrested. He is also saying arrest
Tsvangirai.

“They know that if they arrest Tsvangirai, MDC might pull out of the
coalition government and that might be its end,” he said.

Last week Moyo, the former arch-critic of Mugabe turned lickspittle
bootlicker, demanded the arrest of Tsvangirai and Timba, who is the Minister
of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and also the MDC secretary for
international relations — for allegedly calling Mugabe a liar.

Timba was later arrested as he walked out of his office at Munhumutapa
Building in Harare on Friday. He was released yesterday after spending two
days in police custody without food and water.

“If they ever arrest me and incarcerate me in the cells, let me rot in
there. Their plans should never succeed.
“That is what they want but we will not fall into that trap and we will
never be intimidated into quitting this unity government,” Tsvangirai said.

Mugabe has said that he wants an election this year to undo the unity
government that he says is failing.

But the MDC and civil society groups have denounced the election calls as
premature and ill-advised.

They are demanding comprehensive security sector, media and electoral
reforms first before any polls can be held to ensure a credible and
uncontested outcome.

“They want me arrested so that they can call a snap election with no
election guidelines and roadmap,” Tsvangirai said.

Meanwhile, the MDC also received a major boost yesterday when councillors
and officials from the smaller faction of the MDC defected to join the main
wing.

Eastern Zimbabwe Plantations Face Grim Future

http://www.voanews.com

June 27, 2011

Peta Thornycroft | Chipinge, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s eastern Manicaland Province may have taken the hardest blows from
President Robert Mugabe’s 11 years of seizures of land from white farmers.
.

In eastern Zimbabwe, years of neglect have left many plantations that once
produced avocados, macademia nuts, coffee and timber in a pitiful state.

These crops take up to 12 years from planting to harvest, and nearly all of
farmers who ran these plantations have been evicted since land invasions
began in 2000.  Very few short-term crops do well in the hillier parts of
Manicaland where most of Zimbabwe’s plantations used to thrive.

Replanting long-term plantations is too difficult to finance, says Trevor
Gifford, immediate past president of the Commercial Farmers Union.
Gifford's plantation was forcibly taken from him a year ago. “Manicaland,
has fragile steep soils, it [is] primarily suited to plantations, and
regrettably over the last 11 years the critical mass of plantations have
been decimated through abuse, and it would be very difficult to get
Manicaland back to where it was.  There is no confidence to invest in
long-term development,” he explained.

Zimbabwe was once a major coffee producer, but production has slumped by
more than 90 percent and there are now only five remaining commercial
producers who existed before the land seizures.

There are many black small-scale coffee growers who say they want to expand,
and who could take advantage of assistance from the European Union, which
has long assisted the coffee industry in Zimbabwe.  But small growers cannot
take advantage of the current record-high coffee prices because the crop
they produce is too small for export without the additional production of
the larger growers.

“The small-scale coffee farmer who has been growing since 1984 ... he or she
knows that without the critical mass from commercial producers they are
nothing because they will never produce an 18-ton container of same-style
coffee,” Gifford noted.

Gifford says the agriculture ministry, controlled by Mugabe's ZANU-PF party,
discourages him and the European Union from encouraging new small-scale
farmers to begin growing coffee, because it would mean recognition that
large-scale commercial growers, who were mainly white, were essential to the
small grower.

Gifford, one of the younger evicted farmers, is penniless now, but might
have had an income of more than $2-million a year if he was still on his
farm.  He says Manicaland’s plantations are not being rebuilt, and are still
being destroyed. “I have seen in my travels; citrus industry, zero
rebuilding, just destruction; macademia zero rebuilding.  If you go and talk
to the big timber guys, the losses that they have incurred from fires in the
last four or five years ... we will be importing timber into Zimbabwe in the
near future,’ he said.

Zimbabwe’s commercial plantation farmers had world class reputations for
capital intensive, eco-friendly farming.  Gifford says he wants to remain in
his country, and adds that he and several of his colleagues would like to
help rebuild the plantations.

“We have such human capital ... Africa, could if they just embraced us we
could turn around government estates to get that critical mass of food.  I
do not want to own another bit of Africa, I do not want to put good money
after bad, [but] I have skills and expertise,” said Gifford.

Gifford’s former farm, Wolverhampton, looks a mess from the road.  The
coffee and avocado pear trees have been chopped down.  The timber is being
harvested by the people who took over his farm.

Five minutes after he drove past the farm to show it to VOA, his mobile
telephone rang and a man threatened him with death if he came near the
property again.

Ten days later, Gifford says he was driving past the farm with friends and
shots were fired at his vehicle.  These incidents were reported to the
police.

In small and scruffy Chipinge town, tons of macademia nuts were being sorted
in a warehouse.  Some of the nuts were being sold by people now living on
Gifford’s farm for about $2 a kilogram.

One of the company directors, Jasset Faizel, said he and his Australian
partner, Peter Fusarelli, had permission from the agriculture ministry to
sell the nuts harvested from farms taken from white farmers around Chipinge.

There was no one available at the agriculture ministry to speak to the
media.

No rain in Zimbabwe's south Matabeleland

http://www.rnw.nl/

Published on : 27 June 2011 - 1:43pm

Driving through the dusty and mountainous villages of Matopo in Zimbabwe’s
Southern Matabeleland, our car is stopped by a frail and tired looking man.
His name is Robert Sibanda. He is dressed in torn and faded jeans. Robert’s
eyes are almost popping out and his lips are dry – a sign that he hasn’t
eaten for some days.

By Thabo Kunene, Kezi

This is Matabeleland South - a province where starvation has become a curse
for locals. As we stop to greet him, Robert asks if we have brought some
food from the city. This year was another bad season for local farmers. The
rainfall was erratic, as usual, and there was no harvest at all.

“Don’t you have bread from the city or anything that you have been eating on
the way”, the man asks the driver. Luckily the driver had bought some buns
in Bulawayo and gives him the whole packet.

"I don’t know why our region always suffers from drought. Everybody is
starving in my village. We need the government to help us but I doubt
whether Mugabe will give us food because we always reject his party during
elections,” Robert says.

Ritual rains
What Robert and other locals can’t understand is that their province is the
home of the rain God and sacred Njelele shrine where people used to go and
pray for the rains. In old days, a ritual performance at the shrine would be
followed by heavy rains in the province.

Now it’s a thing of the past. The mysterious voice at the shrine which used
to advise people what to do in difficult times disappeared in 1984 after it
was shot at by soldiers.

“The Gods are angry with us. We have done a lot of damage and evil and God
is punishing us and this evil government,” says another villager.

Mugabe has always regarded Matabeleland as a rebellious province whose
inhabitants need to be punished. In the eighties his soldiers closed down
all rural shops and as a result many villagers starved to death.

Food aid
Robert tells me that he had been to the office of the District Administrator
in Kezi to register for food relief which the government promised but has
not delivered up to this day.

“I am tired because I left home without eating. I walked 12 kilometres to
the office to register for food,” says Robert.

Local Member of Parliament, Siyabonga Ncube says community leaders have
started compiling a list of all the starving villagers to be submitted to
government and donors.

“Next month we as parliamentarians from Matabeleland South, will vote on a
motion in parliament to highlight the plight of our people who are facing
food shortages,” says Mr Ncube.

Insulted by dollars
In a nearby village lives 68-year-old Gogo MaNdlovu. She tells me hunger has
become a curse for them and shows us her granary where villagers keep the
produce from the fields during harvest time. This time it’s empty.

“You see I harvested nothing. Me and my two grandchildren have been
surviving on wild fruits and help from our neighbours who have children who
work in South Africa”, adds Gogo.

But unlike the past, this time the state run GMB has the maize at its depot
in Matabeleland but villagers can’t afford the 1US dollar to buy food.

“There is too much poverty here and when you talk about buying maize, its
like you are insulting people. Where do you expect poor people in the
village to get American dollars to buy food”, says parliamentarian Ncube.

Elephant problem
Another villager, Moffart Moyo tells me people now survive on wild fruits,
roots and leaves which they crush and mix to make thick porridge for the
children.

A local teacher tells me some schools have suspended sporting activities
because the children are too weak to take part.

“The children sometimes sleep on empty stomachs and are expected to walk
many kilometres to school and back the next day. It’s too much for them to
take."

In the northern part of Matabeleland, villagers managed to plough but some
elephants destroyed their crops.

Leaving aid agencies
Local District Administrator’s office officials say there are 400.000 known
starving people in the province but the figure could be much higher. Aid
agencies have all pulled out because of harassment by militants loyal to
President Robert Mugabe.

Parliamentarian Malandu Ncube who was arrested soon after speaking to me,
says they don’t blame aid agencies for abandoning the starving communities.

'Zuma, SADC must stop pussyfooting around Zim'

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za

Chantall Presence | 4 Hour(s) Ago

The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday told President Jacob Zuma and the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) to stop pussyfooting around
Zimbabwe.

On Monday, DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said President Robert
Mugabe's insistence that elections take place in 2011 cannot be supported.

Last week, a cabinet minister close to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was
arrested.

Trollip said Zimbabwe is not ready for elections and a new constitution
needs to be written up and approved by Zimbabweans before elections.

Zimbabweans flee fresh SA xenophobic attacks

http://www.nation.co.ke/

By KITSEPILE NYATHI NATION Correspondent

Posted  Monday, June 27 2011 at 19:44

At least 28 Zimbabweans have sought refuge at a South African police station
while hundreds others are reported missing after fleeing xenophobic attacks
in Limpopo province.

A Zimbabwean, Godfrey Sibanda was stoned to death by rowdy youths led by ANC
councilor Tebogo Mojapilo in the provincial capital of Polokwane last week.

Twelve suspects including Mr Mojapilo were arrested after several houses
belonging to the Zimbabweans were torched.

Mr Mojapelo and his accomplices will appear in court on August 16 for trial.

A committee made up of stakeholders including the United Nations Human
Rights Commission and South African police has been set up to look into the
plight of the Zimbabweans.

“With the assistance of the Limpopo provincial government we have come up
with a task team to investigate and work towards finding a solution to the
problems facing foreign nationals in the city,” Mr Alphens Mabina, a member
of the committee told Zimbabwe’s state owned Herald newspaper.

“We are actually surprised by such an act. We didn’t expect such unruly
behavior considering that we are all Africans and this place is for all who
want to live in it.

SADC Tribunal Judges Demand Compensation

http://www.radiovop.com

7 hours 4 minutes ago

Harare, June 27, 2011 – Four judges with the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Tribunal are demanding financial compensation from the
regional body following what they view as the illegal and arbitrary
suspension of the regional court.

The SADC Council of Ministers and Summit Heads of State and Government on 20
May 2011 decided not to reappoint them or allow them to remain in office
pending a further review in August 2012.

The four judges, whose five-year term expired in August 2010, remained in
office due to the “legitimate and reasonable expectation that, at the end of
the initial independent review commissioned by the SADC Heads of State,
their terms of office would be renewed.”

Officials from SADC Tribunal Rights Watch say this expectation was
justifiable given that the consultants, WTI Advisors Ltd, Geneva, an
affiliate of the World Trade Institute, confirmed in their review report of
February 2011 that the Tribunal was properly established and that its
protocol entered into force in accordance with international
law.

Instead of upholding the review findings however, the SADC Summit took the
decision on May 20 to dissolve the Tribunal, dealing a devastating blow to
the rule of law in the region because it denies individual people access to
justice when they have no legal recourse in their own countries.

The four judges seeking compensation are Justice Ariranga G Pillay
(Mauritius), former president and member, Justice Rigoberto Kambovo
(Angola), former member, Justice Onkemetse B Tshosa (Botswana), former
member, and Justice Frederick Chomba (Zambia), former member.

They recently wrote a letter to Topaz Augusto Salamao, executive secretary
of the SADC Secretariat, demanding compensation.

They also pointed out that the wording of the communiqué issued after the
Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of SADC demonstrates
that the Tribunal has not only been suspended but dissolved altogether.

In their letter the judges this decision, they noted, was “clearly illegal
and ultra vires (invalid) because the Summit has no power to restrict the
jurisdiction of the Tribunal, not the least because it is itself subject to
the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.”

Documents in possession of VOP show that while the judges recognise that the
Summit does ultimately have the power to amend the SADC Treaty and Protocol
with respect to the Tribunal, they stress that the proper procedures have
not yet been followed.

In their letter, the judges find it inappropriate that the SADC Ministers of
Justice / Attorneys Generals should express serious concern regarding the
scope and jurisdiction of, and the law applied by the Tribunal instead of
deciding about the appropriate action to take against Zimbabwe for
non-compliance of the judgments of the Tribunal in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Gibson Sibanda’s children defect to MDC-T

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tichaona Sibanda
27 June 2011

The MDC led by Welshman Ncube suffered a setback this weekend after two high
profile figures in the party announced that they were joining the MDC-T.

Our correspondent Lionel Saungweme told us Ncube’s party was left shaken
after the defection of two children of their late Vice-President, Gibson
Sibanda, to the MDC-T.

Commenting on the shock move MDC spokesperson Nhlanhla Dube shrugged off the
defection, saying Thandi and Mbuso were not members of the party. Dube said
the duo’s names do not exist in their records and that they did not hold any
position within the structures.

Sibanda, who died last year in August, was a co-founder of the MDC. He
helped form the MDC in 1999 but left five years later after differences with
Morgan Tsvangirai.

Sibanda joined the breakaway faction of the MDC and at the time of his death
was co-Minister in the Organ of National Healing, Reconciliation and
Reintegration.

Saungweme said the MDC-T party has been picking up much support at the
expense of the MDC-N and its progress after their recent congress is
forecast to bring further misery to both ZANU PF and the MDC-N.

He said the defection of Thandi and Mbuso was significant after both claimed
they had become ‘increasingly disillusioned’ with the leadership of the
MDC-N.

Our correspondent said there was a roaring welcome from the strong 25 000
crowd that thronged the White City Stadium in Bulawayo when the two were
introduced by Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T national organising secretary.

Commenting on the defection in Bulawayo on Sunday, Tsvangirai welcomed them
back saying it was uncharacteristic for their late father to rebel against
the people. This was in reference to the MDC split on October 25, 2005 after
a national council meeting at which party leader Tsvangirai allegedly vetoed
a plan to field candidates in Senate elections that year. Speaking at
Sibanda’s burial last year, Tsvangirai said he regretted the acrimony
between him and the late trade unionist.

‘The split represented the saddest moment in our 25 years of association and
I deeply regret it. I am sorry for whatever I said. It was not worth it,”
Tsvangirai said at his funeral.

SW Radio Africa to publish full list of CIO’s

http://www.swradioafrica.com

By Lance Guma
23 June 2011

For years agents working for the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
have relied on their secret identities to carry out abductions, torture and
the murder of opposition activists.

But recently SW Radio Africa received a document, leaked in 2001, containing
a list of CIO agents at the time.

It’s expected that a number of the people on the list may have retired or
passed away. Agents recruited after 2001 may not be found on the list but
there will be many who are still serving.
Described as the “Internal Directory of the President's Office” the list
contains the names, home addresses, national ID numbers and employer numbers
of some 484 ‘operatives’ and ‘deputy intelligence officers’. Additionally it
shows which agents were deployed in the various provinces and districts and
the office buildings they used for their ‘work’, including room and
telephone numbers.

The list is a ‘who’s who’ of many of the notorious characters who have
tainted the image of the CIO and forever associate it with some of Zimbabwe’s
most horrific crimes; directing units of the 5th Brigade during the
Gukurahundi Massacres in the Matabeleland and the Midlands; the
disappearance of Rashiwe Guzha; the shooting of Patrick Kombayi; the
hundreds of MDC supporters abducted from their homes and killed.

SW Radio Africa has also been able to verify that dozens on the list are
also currently deployed at various Zimbabwean embassies around the world,
with dubious job titles like “political, economic, cultural’ councillor.
Other agents have claimed that they have since quit the organization and are
now living in the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia and other European
countries.

A security expert who spoke to SW Radio Africa said a close knit unit of
operatives and deputy intelligence officers form the spine of the CIO. The
same organization also employs thousands of informers, who could be anyone
from street vendors, people in the media, politicians and others who provide
information, and receive payment for doing so. This list does not include
informants.

Every Thursday for 6 weeks SW Radio Africa will publish a new section of
this list, in alphabetical order. We will also publish stories related to
some of their crimes, for which they were never prosecuted, while others
received presidential pardons.

‘Inconclusive’ decision on Zim diamond future rejected

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
27 June 2011

The inconclusive and reportedly unilateral decision by the chairman of the
international diamond trade watchdog the Kimberley Process (KP), to allow
Zimbabwe to resume diamond exports, has been rejected.

The decision was announced after a four day meeting of KP members in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, which once again ended in a stalemate over how
to proceed with Zimbabwe. The country’s diamond trade status was top of the
agenda, with some KP members still concerned about ongoing smuggling out of
the Chiadzwa diamond fields and reports of sustained human rights abuses
there.

The situation at Chiadzwa remains largely clouded in secrecy, with the army
still maintaining tight control of the area. But recent reports coming out
of Chiadzwa have raised concerns that nothing has improved. Last month it
was reported that more than 100 dogs were set on miners by police and
soldiers, leaving more than 80 people injured. And earlier this year an
undercover investigation by a UK based newsgroup found that at least 20
people are killed each month at the alluvial diamond fields.

On top of this have been ongoing reports of rampant smuggling, an operation
said to be controlled by military led syndicates who smuggle the stones
through the border to Mozambique. The benefactors of this rampant smuggling
are said to be top ZANU PF officials and Finance Minister Tendai Biti
recently said some US$300 million worth of diamonds from Chiadzwa has
disappeared.

Despite all this the KP’s new chairman, Mathieu Yamba (who is from the DRC),
earlier this year announced that Zimbabwe was allowed to resume sales. This
original unilateral decision was blasted by mainly Western members of the
KP, who insisted that no consensus had been reached on Zimbabwe’s future.
Decisions within the KP are all meant to be taken after consensus is
reached, according to KP protocol.

But Yamba has again thrown protocol out the window, after last week’s
meeting in his country. After the final meeting Thursday night, which saw
civil society groups stage a mass walkout, he announced that Zimbabwe would
be allowed to resume sales.

The United States has since said it is “deeply disappointed,” with the
meeting and emphasised that KP members did “not reach a consensus.”

“We believe that work toward a solution must continue, and that until
consensus is reached, exports from (Chiadzwa) should not proceed,” the US
Embassy in Harare said in a statement.

At the same time John Baird, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, has
announced that Canada has rejected the statement by Yamba, saying that it
“incorrectly states that a compromise was reached.”

“Contrary to the Chair’s Notice, key concerns were not addressed and Canada,
and like-minded states, did not endorse the proposal submitted by the
 Chair,” said Minister Baird.

He added: “The notice was issued in contravention of rules and procedures of
the Kimberley Process. We are advising the Canadian diamond industry against
trade in (Chiadzwa) diamonds.”

Israel has also announced that it will not allow any imports of rough
diamonds from Zimbabwe, in a sign that it has rejected the decision by
Yamba. Israel’s Diamond Controller Shmuel Mordechai has said that all stones
that arrive in Israel from countries that support Zimbabwe’s diamonds, like
India and China, will be searched and thoroughly examined.

The World Diamond Council has also expressed regret about what it called the
‘inconclusive end’ to the KP meeting. The Council has called on all KP
members to renew efforts to reach agreement over the future of exports from
Zimbabwe. The group said that it urges “all members of the trade to deal
only in rough diamonds that are accompanied by KP certificates.”

Council President Eli Izhakoff meanwhile blamed a lack of time for the
ongoing stalemate, insisting that “there was a genuine and concerted effort
to resolve the differences that remained.”

“I do not feel that we reached a dead end. Progress was being made, but we
simply ran out of time. We have to continue talking in order to reach the
necessary consensus as soon as possible,” Izhakoff said.

 

Zimbabwe diamonds not cleared

http://www.insiderzim.com/

Monday, 27 June 2011 11:22
E-mail Print PDF
Zimbabwe’s diamonds from Marange have not been cleared despite the
announcement on Thursday that agreement had finally been reached.

World Diamond Council boss El Izhakoff who was one of the advocates for the
lifting of the ban said Zimbabwe had not gotten the consensus necessary
under the Kimberley Process rules so his organisation was going to urge
members not to trade in Marange diamonds until they got the necessary
clearance.

KP chairman Mathieu Yamba gave Zimbabwe the go-ahead after the four-day
intersessional meeting in Kinshasa but the ruling was strongly opposed by
Zimbabwe’s traditional foes, the United States, Canada, the European Union
and the non-governmental organisations.

Decisions in the KP are by consensus. An objection by a single member
scuttles the whole deal.

“We came to Kinshasa knowing full well that the task ahead of us was
complicated and fraught with difficulty, and over the course of the week
there was a genuine and concerted effort to resolve the differences that
remained,” Izhakoff was quoted by Jewellery News as saying.

“I do not feel that we reached a dead end. Progress was being made, but we
simply ran out of time. We have to continue talking in order to reach the
necessary consensus as soon as possible. I believe that all sides agree that
what is at stake here is not only the wellbeing of the diamond business, but
also the economic future of ordinary people living in the diamond producing
areas. And this, of course, includes Zimbabwe, whose production provides an
exciting new opportunity for economic prosperity in Africa.

“But, if the Kimberley Process is rendered ineffective as a result of
indecision at the executive level, nobody really benefits. We have no
alternative but to carry on looking for a solution. The Kinshasa meeting did
not conclude as we would have liked, but it also did not end with any of the
parties slamming the door on the KP.

“Despite their reservations about KP chair’s declaration, the U.S., E.U.,
Canada and Australia all expressed continuing support for KP and stated
their intention to continue searching for consensus. So did the
representatives of civil society, who represent the third critical pillar
supporting KP, along with government and the industry. So while we may be
frustrated, we have to remain confident,” he said.

Izhakoff said the World Diamond Council will advise industry members if and
when participants to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme reach
consensus on the issuing of KP Certificates for the export of rough diamonds
from the Marange.

Izhakoff urged the participants to the KP at the beginning of the
intersessional meeting in Kinshasa not to be bogged down by politics and
human rights issues and focus instead on the core principles of the KP.

India and China had welcomed news of the lifting of the ban because this
will create jobs in India and develop the industry in China.

Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council chairman Rajiv Jain expressed
disappointment at “the disagreement between the consuming countries and
African producers at KP Intersessional at Kinshasa”.

He said that the failed attempt to resolve the Marange issue would affect
the “livelihood of millions in India who are involved with the diamond
industry in different capacities”.

"We decry the divisions that are stopping the rightful exports from
compliant mines in Marange of Zimbabwe. The politicisation of the process is
demeaning the good efforts of the industry in forging an effective alliance
and creating a mechanism against conflict diamonds in today’s world. Being
one of the founders of KP, we will not allow these happenings to stop the
rightful means of African people to earn their own resources", he said.

New Diamond Act must promote transparency and fair compensation

By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 27th June 2011

The proposed Diamond Act (Daily News, 26/06/11) must rectify the problems
which have dogged Zimbabwe for years in the exploration, safe mining and
secure sale of diamonds. The new Diamond Act of Zimbabwe must promote
transparency and fair compensation to the local communities especially
amidst reports of serious siltation of rivers and dams in Chiadzwa area
resulting in water shortage and pollution (Newsday, Diamond companies ‘kill’
Chiadzwa rivers, 22/06/11).

So much has gone wrong since the Mugabe regime declared the 10-square mile
diamond rich Chiadzwa area open in 2006, despite African Consolidated
Resources (ACR) having a legal claim on them. Eddie Cross, MDC MP for
Bulawayo South recently wrote:

“Before ACR could begin mining, they too were given the standard Zanu-pf
treatment of illegal but forced dispossession, forced occupation of the
claims by various Zanu-pf linked firms and individuals and wild invasion by
small scale miners who simply mined wherever they could and sold the stones
they found to the nearest buyers,” (Bulawayo24.com, 09/06/11). That was
after Zanu-pf had seized a Bulawayo family’s claim over the Limpopo River
diamonds. Then there was tragic chaos in Chiadzwa.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), there were human rights abuses by the
Zimbabwe Defence Forces and the Airforce of Zimbabwe in the Marange diamond
fields including extra judicial killings, beatings, torture, forced labour,
and child labour during the period October 2008-June 2009.

“The first three weeks of the operation were particularly brutal over the
period October 27 to November 16, 2008 the army killed at least 214 miners.
The army has also been engaged fully and openly in the smuggling of
diamonds, thereby perpetuating the very crime it was deployed to prevent,”
said the HRW (“Diamonds in the Rough”, 26/06/09).

Zanu-pf has been accused of using the mineral deposits to reward the
military and keep them loyal to Robert Mugabe. There are also allegations
that the regime has used proceeds from “illegal” diamond sales to buy “a war
chest” claims that appear plausible,  in the wake of Jonathan Moyo’s threat
of the “looming danger” and continuing loose talk of a military coup by the
regime’s loyalists should Zanu-pf and Mugabe lose elections.

It is therefore worrying to see that the proposed Act seeks to entrench the
role of the military and sanitise their human rights abuses as well as
incorporate elements of martial law in what should remain as normal civilian
law. One example of an objectionable requirement in the proposed legislation
is the stipulation that everyone including ministry officials and geologists
must get clearance from the army and the CIO to visit the Chiadzwa diamond
fields.

Ironically, a 10-member youth delegation of the Chinese Communist Party had
the privilege of touring the Chiadzwa diamond fields in May, courtesy of
Zanu-pf, whereas the Zimbabwe Parliamentary Portfolio Committee was barred
twice in March 2010 (The Zimbabwean, MPs barred from visiting Chiadzwa,
10/08/10).

Civil society organisations should lobby the Parliament of Zimbabwe for a
clause or clauses providing for diamond exploration and mining levies
payable to rural councils for financing local community programmes and
projects and for the sustainable use of the environment. There should also
be a clause clearly stating that the polluter pays.

Before ratifying the proposed Diamond Act, the Parliament of Zimbabwe must
ensure there will be fair compensation for displaced locals; adequate and
verifiable demilitarisation of the diamond areas; maximum and verifiable
consultation with among others, civil society and genuine human rights
organisations (not just Zanu-pf NGOs) and guarantee transparency in the
administration of the Act via unrestricted and non-partisan legislative
oversight of diamond mining in Zimbabwe.

©Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com

Bill Watch - Parliamentary Committee Series of 27th June [Public Hearing on Road Traffic Regulations; Committee Meetings - 27-30 June]

APOLOGY
This is a re-send of an earlier version of this bulletin that went out in plain text format.  Please accept our apology for inconvenience caused.  Please also note the cancellation of this afternoon’s briefing on the Human Rights Commission Bill for the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs 

BILL WATCH

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE SERIES

[27th June 2011]

1.    Public Hearing on Road Traffic Regulations: Harare

The House of Assembly Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development will be holding a public hearing on the Road Traffic (Construction, Equipment and Use) Regulations [SI 154/2010] in Harare.  Details are as follows:

Monday 27th June at 9 am

Senate Chamber, Parliament

Chairperson: Hon Chebundo        Clerk: Ms Macheza.

The committee seeks the public’s input on the regulations, parts of which have under fire from both transport operators and ordinary motorists.  Interested groups, business persons and organisations and all members of public are invited to attend the hearing, at which they will be given the opportunity to give evidence and make representations.  Contributions made will be considered by the Committee in compiling a report to be tabled in Parliament.  If you want to make oral representations at the hearing, please signify this to the Committee Clerk so that she can notify the chairperson to call on you.  An oral submission is more effective if it is followed up in writing.  If you are making a written submission, it is advisable to take as many copies as possible for circulation at the hearing.

If you are unable to attend the hearing, written submissions and correspondence may be addressed to: The Clerk of Parliament, Attention: Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development, P.O. Box CY298 Causeway, Harare.  If delivering, please use the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue entrance to Parliament, between Second and Third Streets.

For further information contact the committee clerk, Ms Macheza.  Telephone 04-700181, 252931, 252941, extension 2222.  Email machezas@parlzim.gov.zw

Reminder about the Regulations  Following amendments made by Statutory Instrument 44/2011, SI 154/2010 will come into force on 1st July 2011.  The regulations that lay down a complete code of requirements for the construction and equipment of motor vehicles, replacing regulations dating from the early 1970s.  Provisions that have hit the headlines and drawn criticism from the transport industry and the motoring public include:

·        prohibiting the importation into Zimbabwe after 31st October 2011 of second-hand motor vehicles that are more than five years old 

·        prohibiting the registration of left-hand drive motor vehicles after 31st October 2011

·        prohibiting the use of left-hand drive heavy vehicles after 31st December 2015

·        requiring that all motor vehicles must have fire extinguishers and red reflective triangles complying with specifications detailed in the regulations from 1st July 2011.

In a recent public statement the Minister of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development indicated his readiness to receive representations on contentious aspects of the regulations.

2.  Committee Meetings Open to the Public 27th to 30th June

The following committee meetings at Parliament are open to members of the public as observers only, not as participants, i.e. members of the public can listen but not speak.

Monday 27th June at 2 pm

Portfolio Committee: Budget, Finance, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion

Oral evidence from Minister of Finance on Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review 

Committee Room No. 4

Chairperson: Hon Zhanda             Clerk: Mr Ratsakatika

Tuesday 28th June at 10 am

Portfolio Committee: Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade

Oral evidence from the Ministry of Regional Integration and International Trade on the First Quarter Budget Performance Report

Committee Room No. 3

Chairperson: Hon Mukanduri        Clerk: Mr Chiremba

Portfolio Committee: Industry and Commerce

Presentation of background paper on the business environment in Bulawayo

Committee Room No. 311

Chairperson: Hon Mutomba          Clerk: Ms Masara

Thematic Committee: MDGs

Oral evidence from members of the MDGs National Task Force on the impact of the 2011 Budget on programmes aimed at addressing MDGs

Government Caucus Room

Chairperson: Hon Chief Mtshane Clerk: Mrs Nyawo

Thursday 30th June at 9 am

Thematic Committee: Human Rights

Meeting with the Human Rights Commission on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill

Committee Room No. 2

Chairperson: Hon Marava             Clerk: Ms Macheza

Thursday 30th June at 10 am

Portfolio Committee: Education, Sport and Culture

Oral evidence from Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture on tendering procedure and textbook distribution in primary and secondary schools

Committee Room No. 4

Chairperson: Hon Mangami          Clerk: Ms Chikuvire

Note: As there are sometimes last-minute changes to the meetings schedule, it is recommended that those wishing to attend a meeting avoid disappointment by checking with the relevant committee clerk that the meeting is still on and still open to the public. Parliament’s telephone numbers are Harare 700181 or 252936.  If attending, please use the Kwame Nkrumah Ave entrance to Parliament.  IDs must be produced.

 

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.