http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011 07:46
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE MDC-T star rally at the Zimbabwe Grounds in Harare
failed to live to
expectations after police gave the Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai
“unacceptable conditions” to adhere to just a day before the
meeting, a
senior party official said yesterday.
MDC-T spokesperson
Douglas Mwonzora said Tsvangirai did not turn up for the
rally because he
felt insulted by the conditions given to his party by the
police.
“Tsvangirai did not come because he did not agree with
the strict conditions
given to him by police,” Mwonzora said. “MDC insists
on unmitigated rights,
freedom of association and
assembly.”
According to the police clearance given to MDC-T, party
supporters were not
supposed to “toyi-toyi” before, during and after the
meeting.
The note also prohibited hate speech or derogatory remarks
against other
political parties.
“No hate speech or derogatory
remarks should be contemplated against other
political rivals,” read the
note. Mwonzora said: “It is very difficult to
follow this condition.
The
other condition instructed Tsvangirai to co-operate with state security
agents and report all hooligans to them.
“The police are calling
on the Prime Minister of a country to act as an
informer, again he found
this extremely offensive and disrespectful,” said
Mwonzora.
However,
other senior MDC-T officials said Tsvangirai failed to turn up
because of
the small number of people who came for the rally.
They blamed the
poor turnout on intimidation by Zanu PF militia.
The Standard news
crew saw three MDC-T youths bleeding, claiming that they
had been assaulted
by Zanu PF youths at their party office at Machipisa
Shopping
Centre.
One of them was “knifed” on the hand and was bleeding
profusely and was
rushed to a private clinic for treatment.
This
happened dispite the heavy presence of police around the venue of the
rally.
MDC-T youths who wanted to retaliate were held back by senior
party
officials.
Meanwhile, MDC-T organising secretary Nelson
Chamisa said the party was
ready for elections on condition that the
electoral playing field was level.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 04 June 2011 20:50
BY
PATIENCE NYANGOVE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and service chiefs on
Friday reportedly ordered
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to force Finance
minister Tendai Biti to
review civil servants’ salaries saying the issue was
now a threat to
national security.
The ultimatum was issued at a
National Security Council (NSC) meeting,
impeccable sources have
revealed.
Mugabe and the security chiefs are said to be
worried that if the issue of
salaries for civil servants was not addressed
immediately it might ignite
protests similar to the ones that toppled
authoritarian regimes in Egypt and
Tunisia early this year.
“The
PM was asked to whip his man into line or else the unity government
collapses over the issue of civil servants as it was now threatening
national security,” the source said.
“Tsvangirai is the one who
brought Biti into government and he was told that
he was the one to bring
him to order.”
The ultimatum also came a day after Mugabe launched a
scathing attack on
Biti where he came short of blaming the MDC-T secretary
general for all the
financial problems facing the country.
Mugabe
said Biti was trying to usurp his powers, blocking funding for new
farmers
and failing to finance Bulawayo firms, which are closing down. But
it is the
issue of civil servants’ salaries that has reportedly unsettled
Mugabe and
the generals.
Sources also added that on Tuesday government set up a
committee to look at
the issue of civil servants’ salaries that has been
dragging since last
year.
Mugabe announced during a visit to Ethiopia in
February that civil servants
would get a hefty salary increment after the
government held a third auction
of the Chiadzwa diamonds.
Biti
has maintained that Treasury’s coffers are dry and no significant
income has
been realised from diamond sales.
Yesterday he was not available for
comment. The aide who answered his phone
had promised that Biti would return
the call to The Standard but he was not
not answering his mobile phone when
subsequent attempts were made to contact
him.
Civil servants earn an
average of US$200 a month but statistics show that a
family of five needed
at least US$502 a month to survive. Mugabe’s
spokesperson George Charamba
refused to comment on the ultimatum to Biti
saying he was not authorised to
do so.
Ian Makone, the chief of staff in the PM’s office also refused
to comment
saying he did not know what transpired at the meeting. Minister
of State in
the PM’s office Jameson Timba also refused to comment saying
deliberations
of the NSC were confidential.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011 08:09
PRIME-Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai has no plans to reshuffle his cabinet
anytime soon,
authoritative sources within the MDC-T have said.
There has been
speculation that Tsvangirai was preparing to drop Information
and
Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa from his cabinet
list.
The reports alleged that Chamisa would be asked to
concentrate on his new
role as MDC-T organising secretary like his
predecessor Elias Mudzuri who
was dropped as Energy and Power Development
minister a year ago for the same
reason.
Chamisa beat Mudzuri to
land the post at MDC-T’s congress held in Bulawayo
last
month.
Jameson Timba, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s
office said
Tsvangirai had no plans to change his cabinet nominees
yet.
“I am not aware of any move by the PM to change his team and if
the plans
exist they are entirely his prerogative and only known to him,” he
said.
Last year Tsvangirai dropped four ministers from government in
a reshuffle
he said was meant to strengthen the performance of his party in
the
inclusive government.
— Patience Nyangove
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011
08:08
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
WAR veterans’ leader Jabulani
Sibanda has allegedly instructed chiefs in
Masvingo to compile a list of all
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T)
supporters in their areas, who will
be dealt with at an appropriate time,
insiders have revealed.
But Sibanda
yesterday dismissed the allegations saying they were being
peddled by his
enemies who do not want him to resuscitate Zanu PF in the
province.
People who attended a mini-rally at Chisiyawarima
Township in Masvingo
Central constituency where the instruction was
allegedly issued said Sibanda
told the chiefs that they were “the ears and
eyes of Zanu PF” and must not
tolerate MDC-T activities in their
jurisdiction.
Residents said business came to a halt as shops were
closed and people
force-marched to the venue of the rally.
“He
instructed all traditional leaders to compile a list of MDC-T activists
in
their areas saying Zanu PF will descend from the mountains in the area to
deal with them,” said a resident who attended the meeting.
“He
also produced a list which he claimed had names of school teachers who
were
anti-President Robert Mugabe’s rule.”
Sibanda allegedly said the list
had names of teachers from Mutusva Primary
School, Chapwisa and Shonganiso
Primary school as well as Makoni Secondary
school.
However, Sibanda
dismissed the allegations as “nonsense” saying he actually
urged people to
respect traditional leaders in their areas.
“This is actually
contrary to what I told people,” said Sibanda. “I told
them they should know
that they are under traditional chiefs, whether they
are teachers, war
veterans or businessmen.”
He added, “As we speak, we are dealing with
a case in which an individual
occupied a farm house that the community
wanted to use as a school but he is
defying instructions from the local
traditional leadership to vacate the
farmhouse.”
The war
veterans’ leader also denied producing a list with names of teachers
supporting MDC-T.
Sibanda also dismissed claims that he was under
siege from war veterans in
Masvingo who want him out of the province, where
he is campaigning for Zanu
PF.
“I am at home here,” a defiant Sibanda
said. “It was a creation of the
media. . .that I fled Masvingo. Why? I am at
home here. I am comfortable
here.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011 08:04
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
THE arrest of 24 civic society activists and MDC-T members
over the death of
a police officer in Harare last week is a trademark of
Zanu PF and the
police ahead of major events and elections, analysts
said.
Conflicting statements have emerged over the death of Petros
Mutedza, an
inspector in the police who was killed in Glen View last week.
Some claim
his death came after a nightclub brawl, while the police are
adamant that he
was murdered by activists and MDC-T supporters who have
since appeared in
court.
Ahead of elections and major summits,
Zanu PF is often accused of resorting
to intimidation on the assumption that
it will beat its opponents into
submission. Analysts raised events like
violence that rocked the nation in
the aftermath of the 2000 referendum
ahead of general election also slated
for that same year.
In
2002, ahead of the presidential polls there was countrywide violence only
dwarfed by the fighting ahead of the 2008 presidential election
run-off.
Now with Zanu PF clamouring for elections this year, the
spectre of violence
has once again been raised, with police rounding up
MDC-T members and civic
society activists on the accusation of murdering
Mutedza.
“This is now being used as an excuse to terrorise people,”
Kucaca Phulu, of
Abammeli Lawyers for Human Rights said.
“The
idea is to force the hand of Sadc and portray the MDC-T as a violent
party.”
Sadc is due to hold an extraordinary summit in South
Africa on Saturday on
the Zimbabwe situation. The MDC-T has often accused
Zanu PF of resorting to
violence when cornered and Phulu believes the party
would use this incident
to show that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s
party was also violent.
Phulu accused the police of not doing their
jobs correctly in the sense that
people were rounded up indiscriminately,
saying the police were now using
this incident to justify intimidation of
MDC-T supporters.
“This is part of the campaign machinery of
violence, it comes down to a
function of Zanu PF to ensure that it wins any
election,” the Bulawayo
lawyer said.
Phulu cited the
“coup-plotters” who spent four years in remand prison and
were released last
week without charge, as an example of how people were
arrested
indiscriminately and yet they had no case to answer.
“When one is
drowning they clutch at straws,” he said, illustrating that
despite years of
using intimidation and violence, this campaign method had
not worked for
Zanu PF but the party still stuck to it.
Human rights lawyer, Dewa
Mavhinga described the arrests as a red herring
meant to divert attentions
from the state’s “weak and compromised”
institutions.
“Of course Sadc
will see through this entire charade,” he said.
Mavhinga blasted
partisan policing designed to strike fear in the hearts of
many — torture in
custody.
“But it will not work, violence cannot win the hearts and
souls,” he said.
Since the country attained independence, Zanu PF has
been accused of making
sure that its opponents are arrested and in most
cases such cases are
usually dismissed by the courts.
The late
Vice-President Joshua Nkomo was the first to be charged with
treason and had
to flee the country to live in exile.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011 07:54
BREAD shortages have
resurfaced throughout the country amid warnings that a
massive price
increase is in the offing.
Wellington Penyana, the Bakers Association of
Zimbabwe (BAZ) president
yesterday blamed the shortages on inadequate flour
supplies and obsolete
machinery at most bakeries.
Baz says
Zimbabwe produces 600 000 loaves of bread against a daily national
requirement of 1,6 million.
A standard loaf of bread is selling
for US$1. Zimbabwe imports most of its
wheat following the collapse of the
agriculture sector. — KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011
07:52
ARTHUR Mutambara’s quest for leadership of an MDC faction suffered
a
setback, as the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) indicated
that
they only recognised him as the deputy prime
minister.
Mutambara claims he is still the leader of the party,
despite abdicating the
position to Welshman Ncube at the party’s January
congress.
But last Friday, Zuma’s facilitation team sent
invites to the parties in the
Global Political Agreement for the
extraordinary summit next Saturday,
indicating that the robotics professors
was being invited in his capacity as
the deputy prime minister. — BY OUR
STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 05 June 2011 07:51
CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE management committee of the Constitution Select
Committee (Copac) is
meeting tomorrow to deliberate on the controversial
involvement of state
security agents representing Zanu PF in the
constitution-making process.
The meeting comes amid reports that Zanu
PF has seconded members of the
intelligence, army and other civil servants
to Copac to influence the
outcome of the process.
Some of them have taken
leave from work to assume full duties as Zanu PF
advisors in thematic
committees.
“The whole constitution-making process has been
politicised and my fear is
that it will not reflect the true views of the
people,” said a member of
Copac who requested anonymity. “We have soldiers,
CIOs, judicial officers
and several other civil servants.”
Copac
co-chairperson Douglas Mwonzora on Friday said the fate of 3 Infantry
Brigade commander Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba, who was seconded
by Zanu PF as an advisor, will be the major issue on the
agenda.
“The management committee is meeting on Monday and
Nyikayaramba’s secondment
will definitely be one of the issues that will be
discussed,” Mwonzora said.
“As for the other state security operatives, it is
difficult because we don’t
know them. We will start with those we
know.”
Mwonzora said Nyikayaramba, a staunch supporter of President
Robert Mugabe,
was disqualified by the committee in 2009 but Zanu PF pushed
him back again.
The committee comprises negotiators from the three political
parties that
signed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) as well as the
Minister of
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Eric
Matinenga.
The Standard spoke to one of the state security operatives
but he vehemently
denied being a member of the dreaded shadowy
group.
Justice and Legal Affairs deputy minister Obert Gutu said it
was wrong for
Zanu PF to rope in members of the security forces and judicial
officers.
“Allowing serving members of the security service to act as
deployees of a
political party is very dangerous because the security is
there to serve the
government of the day,” Gutu said.
He said
involving the security services in politics was a recipe for
political
disaster as it increased chances of internal strife. Zanu PF
spokesperson
Rugare Gumbo refused to comment.
ZANU PF members co-opted into
COPAC
Other notable people employed by state institutions representing
Zanu PF
include Zimbabwe Media Commission chief executive officer Tafataona
Mahoso
and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Vimbai Chivaura.
The
involvement of Harare regional magistrate Never Katiyo has also
generated
controversy.
But Katiyo on Friday said he was not nominated by Zanu
PF but by traditional
chiefs as their technical advisor.
“Even if
you go to the United Nations Development Programme you will find my
CV. My
coming here is above board and my employer (Judicial Services
Commission) is
aware of it,” Katiyo said.
He said he could not align himself to any
political party as it would
compromise his professional integrity.