http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Patricia Mpofu Wednesday 23 March
2011
HARARE – Zimbabwean authorities yesterday postponed indefinitely
a vote to
choose a new speaker of Parliament, a move that effectively
suspends the
House until further notice, while also signaling deepening
strife within the
Harare coalition government.
Under the country’s
laws the key House of Assembly must first elect a
Speaker before it can
contact any business. The House was due to choose a
new speaker yesterday
after the Supreme Court ruled three weeks ago that
former speaker and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s top ally Lovemore Moyo’s
2008 election to the
post was irregular and void.
But Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma told
journalists in Harare that the
vote for a new speaker would no longer go
ahead partly so as to allow the
conclusion of an application by Moyo in
which he wants the courts to confirm
that he reverts back to being an
ordinary MP after nullification of his
speakership.
“The election of
the Speaker will take place on a future date to be
announced in due course
…. there will be no further business of the House
until the election of the
Speaker,” Zvoma said.
But Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party angrily rejected
postponement of the election,
labeling Zvoma a ZANU PF functionary whose
decision to defer the vote was
motivated by a desire to give President
Robert Mugabe’s faction riven party
more time to agree on a candidate for
the post.
“ZANU PF is scared of the vote for speaker because of
factionalism and
divisions in that party …. MDC is united, and ready to win
the vote together
with other progressive members of parliament across the
political divide,”
read a statement issued by Tsvangirai’s
party.
With the smaller MDC faction led by Welshman Ncube saying it will
boycott
the speaker’s election, Tsvangirai’s party looks most likely to win
the key
post. The MDC-T has 97 MPs, including Moyo while Zanu PF has
96.
But several of the MDC-T’s legislators are facing various charges and
should
any be convicted and sentenced to long jail terms in the days and
weeks
ahead this could see the party’s seats reduced to the advantage of
ZANU PF.
Meanwhile ZANU PF insiders say the party is in a quandary over
who to
sponsor as candidate for the speaker’s job.
Mugabe’s party had
initially intimated it could field its chairman, Simon
Khaya Moyo, but
insiders said there was lack of consensus on his candidature
despite being
the most senior member of the party selected to stand.
It is understood
other officials of the faction-riddled party wanted long
serving chief whip
Jorum Gumbo to be the party’s candidate while others
wanted outspoken
legislator for Mwenenzi East, Kudzakwashe Basikiti. --
ZimOnline
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
23 March
2011
The MDC says it is considering all available options, including
possible
legal action, over Tuesday’s unilateral cancellation of the vote
for Speaker
of Parliament.
ZANU PF Clerk of Parliament, Austin Zvoma,
unilaterally froze the workings
of the House on Tuesday after announcing
that the anticipated Speaker vote
would not take place. Zvoma, who is now
the chief officer in Parliament
after the Supreme Court nullified the 2008
election of the MDC’s elected
Speaker Lovemore Moyo, said the House would be
adjourned indefinitely. He
gave no date as to when the election would
be.
”The Constitution, Standing Orders and the Supreme Court Ruling
oblige us to
go back to the beginning to procedurally and lawfully fill the
vacancy in
the office of Speaker created by the dissolution of Parliament at
the
beginning of 2008,” Zvoma said, “Accordingly, I, as the Clerk of
Parliament
duly mandated to comply with the provisions of the Constitution
and Standing
Orders, do hereby announce that the election of Speaker will
take place on a
future date to be announced in due course.”
The move
is widely believed to have been sponsored by Zvoma’s ZANU PF party,
which is
said to still be fighting over who to nominate as Speaker.
Political analyst
Professor John Makumbe agreed that ZANU PF was driving the
decision of the
Clerk, and called the “chaos at Parliament a sign of the
infighting in ZANU
PF.”
“ZANU PF has serious problems. They can’t agree on anything, they
are so
unpopular with the public, they’re also run by the military,” Makumbe
said.
With this in mind, Makumbe said that the MDC should work hard at
trying to
sway ZANU PF moderates within Parliament, who are already rumoured
to be
more likely to vote for the MDC-T’s candidate, Lovemore Moyo, for
Speaker.
Makumbe said it was a good time for the MDC-T to ensure that the
vote is in
their favour, and urged the party to also work on unifying the
smaller MDC
faction to this end.
“They must now work very hard to
make sure that the MDC led by Welshman
Ncube also supports Moyo has
Speaker,” Makumbe said. “They must also push
hard to ensure that the Clerk
of Parliament calls this election as soon as
possible, regardless of whether
ZANU PF is ready or not.”
MDC-T spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the party
is already preparing for the
election, and is “looking at all the mechanisms
of ensuring the vote goes
ahead as soon as possible.” He said that legal
options are still being
explored. Party Secretary General Tendai Biti said
on Tuesday that the party
would consider approaching the High Court to force
the Clerk to call the
election as soon as possible.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
23/03/2011 00:00:00
by Lebo
Nkatazo
ZANU PF on Wednesday named Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to
South Africa
Simon Khaya Moyo as its candidate for the post of Speaker of
Parliament
declared vacant by a Supreme Court ruling on March
10.
Joram Gumbo, Zanu PF’s chief whip, told reporters after a meeting of
the
party’s MPs on Wednesday that the politburo had endorsed the choice of
Khaya
Moyo.
Khaya-Moyo, currently the Zanu PF’s chairman, will
face-off with deposed
Speaker Lovemore Moyo (MDC-T) in the vote by secret
ballot on a date yet to
be announced.
The former Speaker was removed
from the chair after the Supreme Court found
irregularities in his election
on August 25, 2008. Six MPs displayed their
filled ballots to the MDC-T’s
parliamentary leadership against voting rules.
The Welshman Ncube-led MDC
has said it will not contest the poll and has
ordered its seven MPs to
vacate the chamber before the closely-balanced
vote. Zanu PF has 96 MPs, the
same number as MDC-T, although former Speaker
Moyo insists that he still
represents his constituency of Matobo North and
is pushing for
recognition.
In a statement, Ncube’s MDC said: “The MDC is focusing more
on party
building and preparing for future elections. The party has decided
to make a
strategic retreat in the contest for speakership, leaving the
fight to Zanu
PF and Tsvangirai's MDC considering that the two are insincere
partners.
“As things stand, there is no change of heart regarding the
party position
on the issue. Mugabe and Tsvangirai should keep their Arthur
Mutambara and
we will keep our votes.”
Addressing concerns that some
of its seven MPs may have struck deals with
either Zanu PF or MDC-T to defy
the party directive, the MDC warned: “The
party has the capacity to deal
with political prostitutes in its ranks if
there are any.”
http://www.businessday.co.za
Civil rights leaders say
elections are near impossible at this stage
LIVHUWANI MAMMBURU
Published:
2011/03/23 07:17:09 PM
Zimbabwean civil society organizations have said
holding free, fair and
democratic elections in that country is near
impossible.
This was the view of Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition programmes
manager
Pedzisani Ruhanya, who told a media briefing in Johannesburg on
Wednesday
that the Global Political Agreement (GPA) achieved in 2008 no
longer exists
and human rights abuses are occurring daily.
"Zanu-PF
has decided to go back to its old way of lawlessness, its old way
of human
rights violations and its old way of violating the fundamentals of
civil and
political liberties of Zimbabweans.
"For the past months MDC members of
parliament and cabinet ministers along
with civil society leaders have been
arrested. Zanu-PF is talking about
having elections, but the infrastructure
of holding the elections is
non-existent," he warned.
Pelagia
Razemba, Deputy National Chairperson of Zimbabwe Human Rights
Association
concurred with Ruhanya, saying that human rights violations have
recently
escalated in the country, with Zanu-PF aligned youth militia being
used to
attack civilians.
"The human rights situation is at a crisis level. We
are really getting
scared for our lives as we live there," she said.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Mar 23, 2011,
17:57 GMT
Johannesburg - A Zimbabwean human rights group on Wednesday
questioned why
Africa and the United Nations were intervening in conflicts
in Libya and
Ivory Coast, while largely ignoring events in
Zimbabwe.
'It's all very well to mediate in the Ivory Coast and Libya,
but what about
Zimbabwe?' Pedzisai Ruhanya of the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition asked a
media briefing in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He
said elections that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was planning
presented an opportunity for South Africa, the African Union, the Southern
African Development Community and the United Nations to be proactive in
restoring stability there, because 'we don't want to come to the point of
Libya and see rivers of blood.'
Ruhanya compared Zimbabwean civil
rights groups' struggle against Mugabe to
that of blacks under apartheid
South Africa, and noted that the
international community clearly targeted
the South African government with
sanctions and isolation during the
apartheid era.
Ruhanya said human rights activists in Zimbabwe wanted the
international
community to monitor the unity government and should at least
deploy
monitors with peacekeeping powers, rather than just
observers.
Mugabe's government is regularly criticized for human rights
abuses.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Edward Jones Wednesday 23 March
2011
HARARE – Hardliners close to President Robert Mugabe have
embarked on an
overt drive to frustrate Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
into quitting the
fragile coalition government as part of a wider campaign
to trigger fresh
elections this year that ZANU-PF feels increasingly
confident it will win,
analysts said.
Mugabe has previously said he
wanted the two-year-old unity government to
wind down this year and hold
elections, which Tsvangirai has warned his
Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party would boycott if they were held
without a new constitution and
electoral reforms to ensure a free and fair
vote.
ZANU-PF has
regained its stride again after the election defeat to the MDC
in 2008,
analysts said, and the former liberation movement now believes a
propaganda
offensive peppered with an anti-sanctions campaign and
indigenisation drive,
cash from diamonds and violence will carry the day at
the ballot
box.
“ZANU-PF believes that it has generated some momentum now and will
not want
to lose that by delaying the elections,” said Eldred Masunungure,
who chairs
the Mass Public Opinion think-tank.
“It has now become
very clear that the plan is to bring political pressure
to bear on
Tsvangirai so that he has no other option but to walk away from
the
coalition.”
The already shaky unity government has recently been rocked
by the arrests
of several MDC legislators and Energy and Power Development
Minister Elton
Mangoma on charges of criminal abuse of office and the
nullification of the
election of Lovemore Moyo, MDC chairman, as election
Speaker.
Yesterday the planned vote for the new Speaker was postponed
indefinitely to
allow the conclusion of a court challenge by Moyo although
sources in
ZANU-PF said this was meant to give the party time to reach
consensus on a
candidate.
The unrelenting onslaught on Tsvangirai has
reached fever pitch with senior
ZANU-PF officials openly attacking the Prime
Minister on state television
and pushing for his arrest on contempt of court
charges after his attack on
Supreme Court judges for the ruling on Moyo’s
election.
Tsvangirai has dared ZANU-PF, saying his arrest will lead to
the collapse of
the unity government.
“I can say ZANU-PF is firmly
back in its default mode doing what it knows
best. Their message to
Tsvangirai is that ‘you are impotent, nothing has
changed with the formation
of this unity government’,” John Makumbe, a
senior political science
lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe said.
New Battlefront
The
formation of the unity government in 2009 after protracted negotiations
between the MDC and ZANU-PF brought optimism among Zimbabwe’s restive
population, which hoped to see an end to violence, a dramatic improvement in
the economy and billions of dollars in Western aid that would lead to new
jobs in a country where eight out of ten people have no formal
employment.
But while the economy has stabilised with consecutive growth
and inflation,
which spiraled to more than 500 billion percent in 2008, is
back in single
digit figures, economic analysts warn that Zimbabwe is still
at great risk
of sliding back into chaos with Mugabe’s controversial
policies.
These include a push by Mugabe to nationalise mines and seize
foreign
companies under a controversial indigenisation policy that will also
target
companies from countries that have imposed sanctions on Mugabe and
his
ZANU-PF allies.
This has opened another battlefront between
ZANU-PF and MDC, which fears
indigenisation will be used to enrich a clique
around Mugabe as happened
with the land reforms where mostly ZANU-PF
supporters carved out fertile
farms from white commercial farms at the
expense of ordinary Zimbabweans.
“They want to frustrate and wear us
down. The harassment, lies and
embarrassment we endure at great sacrifice is
all meant to drive us to
breaking point, to quit the unity government,”
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC
spokesman said. “But we will not be stampeded out.
We are here to save the
people of Zimbabwe who gave us that
mandate.”
With pressure mounting from ZANU-PF, Tsvangirai faces anger
from his own
impatient supporters who feel he is being outfoxed by
87-year-old Mugabe,
one of the oldest leaders in Africa who has been in
power since independence
in 1980.
MDC supporters want an end to what
they feel is police brutality for the
former opposition leader to give the
go ahead for them to retaliate violence
from ZANU-PF supporters, which
Tsvangirai is against.
Political analysts said ZANU-PF hardliners were
out to expose Tsvangirai as
an impotent leader, and that Mugabe was still
fully in charge even after
agreeing to share power.
Police have
banned several MDC meetings throughout the country and last week
banned a
peace rally which Tsvangirai planned to address, saying ZANU-PF had
booked
an adjacent venue and law enforcement agents would not have personnel
to
monitor the MDC rally.
Diamonds and China
Political analysts said
ZANU-PF was confident that it could navigate the
economy on its own, banking
on the millions that the country stands to get
from the controversial
Marange or Chiadzwa diamond fields and funds that are
starting to come from
long time ally China.
Wikileaks released confidential U.S. State
Department cables last year which
said Mugabe’s wife Grace and several
senior military officers were part of a
cartel linked to Mugabe who were
salting away diamonds worth millions from
Chiadzwa.
The diamonds have
already courted controversy after the mines ministry
declared it had sold
$313 million worth of stones and that while $174
million is supposed to go
to treasury, only $167 million has been accounted
for.
But it could
be the coming in of China, which this week unveiled a clutch of
loans worth
$700 million to held Zimbabwe’s stricken economy, that will
convince ZANU-PF
it finally has a solid financial backer to beat the MDC at
the
polls.
China, now the second largest economy in the world is seeking
mineral
resources in Zimbabwe to feed into its fast expanding
economy.
Beijing is stepping up its investment in the mineral rich
southern African
country and maybe looking to fill the void left by the
West, which has
slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his ZANU-PF
allies.
“The diamonds will prove to be a curse for Zimbabwe. But the
devil could be
China with its financial help that will act as a catalyst to
ZANU-PF’s plans
to bulldoze its way to elections this year,” Makumbe
said.
“I think ZANU-PF has reached a point where they think with diamonds
and
China they can survive without the West, they will feel insulated.” --
ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Chief Reporter
Wednesday, 23
March 2011 13:55
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe draws $3million from
the treasury each time
he travels to Singapore for medical check-ups,
Finance Minister Tendai Biti
has confirmed.
Biti refused to comment
on the matter and flatly declined to give any
details. But authoritative
government sources said the state had paid $12
million towards medical bills
accumulated by the head of state for his
nagging ailments over the past four
months.
The Zimbabwean understands that government has been footing all
the hospital
bills and transportation.
Mugabe has travelled to
Singapore four times already this year, including
his annual holiday in
January, where he is also understood to have undergone
medical
check-ups.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba has said Mugabe, 87, is
undergoing
"routine cataract surgery" and has rubbished mounting speculation
that he is
undergoing chemotherapy for prostrate cancer. But sources have
told The
Zimbabwean that Mugabe regularly consults his Malaysian urologist
Mahmood
Awang Kechik, who is his personal physician, whose medical practice
has sent
medical equipment to Harare for the president.
At his 87th
birthday celebrations last month, an increasingly frail Mugabe
said that
even if his body "may get spent," his mind remained alert.
Apart from
concern that he is wasting so much state money on his trips
abroad for
medical reasons, there is also concern about his long absences
from work
because of the frequently recurring medical check-ups. He has
spent seven
weeks in Asia since December - a full month of that time
ostensibly for eye
surgery.
The state budget provides for official presidential trips
overseas, but Biti
has lamented high budget overruns on foreign travel. He
is on record as
saying that government officials blew nearly US$30 million
on foreign travel
last year alone – which impacted badly on his austerity
measures.
Up to October last year, foreign travel costs amounted to $29.2
million –
some three percent of total recurrent expenditure over the same
period.
Expenditure overran the budget by $5million. Already this year
Mugabe's
trips alone have blown half the travel budget. Economic analysts
say this is
unacceptably high in relation to other critical expenditure
areas.
Biti said in his 2011 budget proposals that the treasury would
move to
enforce tougher restrictions on the government’s travel budget after
it
emerged that officials were spending more on foreign trips than the
government did on healthcare for the entire civil service. He has, however,
been powerless to resist Mugabe’s demands.
Besides his medical
check-up trips, Mugabe has undertaken a series of
overseas trips. During a
recent UN trip he took with him about 80
hangers-on.
"It is worth
reminding everyone that this is the people's money being that
is being
spent," said political commentator Ronald Shumba. Critics say the
numbers
are too high at a time when Zimbabwe's economy is struggling and
when civil
service heads have been ordered to cut all non-essential foreign
travel. The
massive foreign travel budget is an affront to the $200 paid to
most civil
servants, said one critic.
“The budget for presidential travel abroad is
clear evidence of how the
president has wasted money in the face of people’s
poverty,” Shumba said.
"Surely he can cut costs by seeking local treatment.
We don’t have to be
spending so much money on foreign doctors. It’s an
affront on his
indigenisation drive. Is he saying the local doctors are not
good enough for
him? Or this is the price we are paying for his obsession to
keep his
medical condition secret?"
He pointed out that, in addition
to funds for official visits, the budget
provided for the president’s
clothing allowance as well as millions of
dollars for security.
http://www.miningweekly.com
By: Brindaveni
Naidoo
23rd March 2011
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – In
the midst of reports indicating that
Zimbabwe has received the green light
to export rough diamonds from the
Marange fields, the World Diamond Council
(WDC) has urged members of the
international diamond industry to refrain
from trading in and exporting
goods from Marange.
The council said
that it had been widely reported that Kimberley Process
(KP) chairperson
Mathieu Yamba recently issued a statement that deferred
discussion on
unresolved issues to the Working Group on Monitoring, but [in
the meantime]
permitted Zimbabwe to export rough diamond shipments from the
two official
concessions in the Marange region, subject to oversight by the
appointed
Monitor.
Media reports quoted a letter in which Yamba said: "With
immediate effect,
Zimbabwe is hereby authorised to resume exports from the
compliant mining
operations of Mbada and Canadile.”
Mbada Diamonds
and Canadile Miners are two companies in joint ventures with
the State's
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
Nongovernmental organisation
Global Witness campaigner Elly Harrowell told
Mining Weekly Online that this
decision made by Yamba is ‘worrying’.
“We hope he will retract it. All KP
decision-making is governed by the
principle of consensus, but the
chairperson appears to have disregarded this
to unilaterally push through a
decision that goes against the wishes of
numerous KP members. This sets a
dangerous precedent, which could have
serious repercussions for the future
of the scheme.
“It could also have grave consequences for efforts to
combat abuse and
illegality in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields – if the
decision stands, it
would allow massive diamond exports with little or no
oversight by the
anti-blood diamond scheme,” said the London-based
Harrowell.
Global Witness director Charmian Gooch previously said that
disputed
diamonds from Marange posed a real threat to the integrity of the
diamond
supply chain. “By refusing to buy these stones, the industry could
reinforce
the strength and credibility of the KP, and chart a path to a
satisfactory
agreement on Marange diamonds.”
In February, the WDC
said that through prescribed procedure, member
governments of the KP gave
their agreement to a document that would allow
for the recommencement of
exports from approved concessions in the Marange
region.
As outlined
in the document, this approval is subject to agreement on
continued
oversight and monitoring.
“Before exports could resume, however, the
authorities in Zimbabwe needed to
complete a series on consultations with
Yamba, representing the Democratic
Republic of Congo.”
The WDC said
on Wednesday, that KP participant countries, including the US,
Canada,
Israel and the European Union were seeking clarity on procedural
issues
surrounding this document, and have indicated that exports should not
be
permitted until the issues have been resolved and explained.
“The WDC
would like to assure all parties involved that it retains at their
disposal
to lend assistance and contribute to any initiative that will
resolve
outstanding issues, while protecting the credibility of the KP.”
The KP
annual plenary meeting, in Jerusalem, last year ended without
agreement on
Marange following four days of negotiations.
“Restrictions on the export
of stones from the diamond fields in eastern
Zimbabwe have been in place for
the past year [2010] under the terms of a
‘Joint Work Plan’ agreed between
the KP and the Zimbabwean government. The
restrictions were imposed
following the killing of over two hundred miners,
in Marange, by the
Zimbabwean security forces, in late 2008 and patterns of
violence and
smuggling that persisted thereafter,” Global Witness said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
23 March, 2011
An admission has finally come from one of
the officials heading the Joint
Monitoring and Implementation Committee
(JOMIC), that the institution has no
power to stop the deterioration of the
political situation in Zimbabwe.
In the wake of escalating political
violence and illegal arrests of
activists JOMIC co-chairperson, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, reportedly
admitted on Tuesday that the committee had
no power to end the crisis in the
country and was looking to SADC to
intervene.
Describing the turn of events as a “smart coup”, Mushonga said
JOMIC and
other civic organizations had been rendered useless. “There is
nothing we
can do because JOMIC is a creature of the inclusive government,
whose
decisions are being overridden,” she is quoted as saying.
The
statement has been welcomed by many observers who also noted that the
committee never had any power in the first place. Luke Zunga of the Global
Zimbabwe Forum, described Mushonga’s admission as a positive first step that
can lead to alternative actions. “It is a confirmation of what we have been
saying. The GPA is a non-starter and this is an opportunity to look
elsewhere,” said Zunga.
Regarding the next step, Mushonga said that
all JOMIC could do was write
reports about incidents in the country and
forward them to the SADC
facilitation team of South Africa’s president Zuma.
The team would then
report to the SADC troika and then to SADC
summits.
This approach drew criticism from Zunga, who said it is widely
accepted that
SADC has no political will to change the situation in
Zimbabwe. “We need to
look past SADC and past the AU because they will not
do anything to help end
the Zimbabwean crisis,” said Zunga.
He added:
“Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai should use his authority as a
top
government official to legally approach the United Nations and seek
their
help removing a dictator.”
Just last week Tsvangirai told journalists that
“dark and sinister” forces
had engaged in a “hostile takeover” in running
the affairs of the country.
Speaking at a press conference on his return
from a tour where he briefed
regional leaders about the ongoing crackdown,
Tsvangirai admitted the
coalition government was not working.
Zunga
said the Prime Minister and the MDC should now focus on convincing the
UN
that it is up to them to help Zimbabweans, because no help is coming from
SADC and the AU.
He described the growing acceptance by MDC officials
that they have no
power, and their willingness to admit this, as an
encouraging sign.
RE: P R HAPELT GRASSLANDS RANCH
SOMABHULA
SUBDIVISION 29 OF
UPDATE ON RECENT EVENTS - 21 MARCH
2011
17 March
2011
Mr Hapelt was alone in the farm house on Thursday around
1 pm, when Mr Mangena arrived with a gang of about fifteen youths. He was also accompanied by a man believed to
be a Mr Sibanda who was very militant, aggressive and confrontational. In
addition to these men, Mr Hapelt was confronted by a delegation purporting to be
from the Ministry of Lands. The
delegation consisted of a Policeman from Gweru and a lady, Susan, from the Gweru
Lands office. They claimed to have an
eviction notice from the Ministry of Lands.
For several hours Mr Hapelt was forced to lock himself in
the farm house while the youth rampaged around the perimeter fence. The youth appeared to be intoxicated and
menacing and were kicking and lashing out at Mr Hapelts dogs, through the
fence. In the presence of the Police
officer, Mr Mangena and his accomplices threatened Mr Hapelt and his workers who
were forced to sit down and were told they were not allowed to
work.
Mr Mangena informed Mr Hapelt he would arrive at the farm
on Friday to forcefully remove him and his cattle from the farm. He also stated that should his men decide to
get violent, “he would look the other way”. Mr Hapelt was confused as to how he
could be evicted by Mr Mangena before his court case which is to be heard in
April. Mr Mangena said the document he
had superceded any Court document and he would be back to carry out his threats
to evict the Hapelts the next day, Friday. He left a document signed by Mr
Joseph Shoko of the Lands Committee saying Mangena owned the farm. The document was a poor photocopy with Mr Syd
Shaws name crossed out and Mr Hapelts name hand written over
this.
Mr Hapelt is frail and unwell. On her return from Gweru,
Mrs Hapelt found her husband had collapsed after the confrontation with Mr
Mangena, and had to be confined to bed.
The Hapelts daughter, Mrs Nixon, heard about the incident
and fearing for her father’s safety, phoned the South African Embassy asking
them to intervene and help resolve the situation. She spoke to Gary Smith of the SA Embassy who
was very sympathetic but did not seem to think the situation was that serious or
that Mr Mangena would return the next day.
He stressed that Mr Mangena had no right to do this as the issue was to
be presented in the Gweru Magistrates on 1st
April.
Friday 18th
March
On Friday morning, as promised, Mr Mangena and his gang
of youth arrived back at Grasslands Farm
and once again besieged the farm house.
Mr Mangena said he had given the Hapelts plenty of time to move and he
would no longer wait for them. The youth
again appeared to be intoxicated and again started rampaging around the security
fence of the house.
Mrs Hapelt was in Gweru when she heard of the situation
at Grasslands. She went to Gweru Rural
police station where the police were dismissive and refused to help her. The front office maintained Mr Nemo, officer
in charge was away however, Mrs Hapelt found him in his office. The police eventually went to Grasslands farm
but returned to Gweru saying they could not do anything to assist
her.
Despite the volatile situation, brave neighbours of the
Hapelts arrived to try and help. When Mr
Hapelt went to open the gate for them, the drunken mob attacked and tried to
enter the security fence. Mr Hapelts
hand was injured in the scuffle but he managed to get the gates closed again.
When Mrs Nixon was made aware of the situation she again
made several calls to the South African embassy to ask them to try and
help. She managed to speak to the
Ambassador who was unfortunately in a conference so could not help. She also spoke to Mr Simmins and Mr Smith who
again were sympathetic and said they would brief the Ambassador of the
situation.
The Mob surrounding the farm had become more aggressive
and threatened to cut the fence and begin evicting Mr Hapelt. When Mrs Hapelt realised that the police were
not going to assist she returned to the farm fearing for the safety of her
husband and her neighbours. Mr Mangena
said unless the Hapelts instantly agreed to start leaving the farm he would
begin the eviction immediately. With the
help of their neighbours, the Hapelts had to negotiate with Mr Mangena to defuse
the situation. Under duress and fearing
for their safety, they agreed to agree to start vacating the
farm.
Mr Mangena has insisted that the Hapelts attend a meeting
on Friday 25th March at the Lands office in Gweru. He warned them that if they did not show up
for the meeting the consequences of their actions would be dire. The Hapelts are
not sure why they have to attend this meeting but they are fearful of what may
happen if they do not attend.
Mr Mangena forced the Hapelts to cancel a social
gathering which had been planned for Saturday lunch. He said he would only allow family to visit
them and the Hapelts were not to have other people visiting. He also indicated that he wanted them to pay
him rent and pay for grazing for three
years.
Mr and Mrs Hapelt have spent the weekend packing up and
moving their possessions from the farm house.
Mr Hapelt has moved his cattle on to the Heeltap farm which adjoins
Grasslands Farm. Mr Mangenas cattle are
also currently grazing on this farm as there is no fence demarcating the
boundaries of the two farms.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by
HRT Information
Wednesday, 23 March 2011 09:44
Kuwadzana Extension-
the Harare Residents' Trust (HRT) is seriously
concerned with the attitude
of the City of Harare towards residents,
following widespread water
disconnections over unpaid rates. This action
represents the arrogance of
the local authority when dealing with sensitive
issues. The HRT reiterates
that water disconnections are illegal and should
not be tolerated by
overburdened residents.
Key Facts to Know about the Water Crisis:
1
Rates and water charges are indicated on one sheet of paper. This
creates
confusion on what aspect of the bills they are dealing with.
2 Residents
cannot and will not pay for estimated water bills.
3 If one pays part of
their outstanding bill, the following month the
bills increase to
unjustified levels, not indicating any payments made
earlier.
4 The
City of Harare has obsolete billing equipment, meaning their billing
system
is outdated and remains inconsistent.
5 The water charges as represented
by the bills dispatched to residents
represent illegality because the
purported charges were set without
residents? input, and it is part of the
case filed by the HRT?s
representatives on 18 March 2011 in the High Court
under Case Number HC2830/
11.
Given these facts, the HRT urges residents
of Harare to intensify their
refusal to pay all outstanding bills to the
City of Harare until;
a. Finalization of the Court Case which has been
filed top contest the
2011 City Budget.
b. The City of Harare has
reduced the rates to levels demanded by the
residents.
In the
meantime residents are urged to pay at most US$15 for all rates,
including
water, refuse, and supplementary charges. Because of the
unrepentant
attitude of the City of Harare, residents in their numbers are
urged to make
court applications demanding compensation from the City of
Harare for the
damage on their vehicles due to the many potholes on their
roads. There is a
precedent to this matter. On Friday 9 February 2007, the
High Court ordered
the City of Harare to pay top banker Ms Pindie Nyandoro
Z$1, 6 million in
damages for damages to her top-of-the-range Mercedes Benz
vehicle after
hitting a pothole while driving along Enterprise Road.
The HRT condemns the
behavior of City officials who have let down the
residents by carrying out
illegal instructions to disconnect water- a right
that cannot be taken away
for any treason, considering the impact of water
shortages.
http://www.radiovop.com/
23/03/2011
18:38:00
Masvingo, MARCH 23, 2011 - Former Daily News bureau chief
for Masvingo
province, Energy Bara, has swapped the pen for
politics.
Bara, who is also the chairperson of the advocacy committee of
the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Masvingo chapter), won the
primary
elections of the Morgan Tsvangirai led Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC -
T) over the weekend and will represent the party in council
elections if the
much talked about 2011 polls are held this
year.
Bara trounced Masvingo City Council deputy mayor, Selina Maridza in
the
MDC-T primary elections for ward one.
MDC-T provincial chair,
Wilstuff Sitemere, confirmed that Bara had won.
In an interview, Bara
said he was frustrated by the long wait he underwent
after the Daily News
was banned by the government.
The Daily news, is, however, set to return
with the launch issue which hit
the streets last Friday.
"The pace of
media reforms in Zimbabwe is very slow. I was fed up of waiting
and being
unemployed. That is why i opted for politics," said Bara.
He said he does
not regret his choice.
"Journalism is an interesting profession in other
countries. But in
Zimbabwe, it seems like a crime to be a scribe. You have
so many hassles.
Because of the shrinked nature of the industry, the
salaries are low-in
fact, Zim journalists are the least paid in the region.
So I had no choice,
I had to look at other opportunities to keep my head
above the water," he
said.
Bara is not the first journalist who has
opted for politics. The former
editors of the defunct Tribune newspaper,
Kindness Paradza and another
journalist Makhosini Hlongwani have in the past
traded their pens for
politics.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
23 March, 2011 04:29:00 sapa
SOUTH
AFRICA and the international community need to acknowledge the
power-sharing
deal in Zimbabwe has failed to resolve the country's
leadership crisis,
Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
"We have had no acknowledgement from
South Africa, or any country, that the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) did
probably not resolve the crisis,"
organisation spokeswoman Tiseke Kasambala
told reporters in Johannesburg.
"There have been no acknowledgements of
the dangers being faced here... that
this is a repeat cycle... of lack of
accountability and justice."
There had been increasing political violence
and human rights abuses in the
wake of calls by Zimbabwean leader Robert
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party to
hold elections and bring an end to the
coalition government.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission however had been
silent on the matter.
A Human Rights Watch report on the country stated
the South African
government and SADC countries had done very little to
intervene in the
country's crisis.
Instead, President Jacob Zuma and
other leaders called for the lifting of
targeted sanctions imposed by the US
and European Union on Mugabe and his
inner circle, arguing they were an
obstacle to the progress of the
power-sharing government.
"There is
no longer a truce [in the government], but open violence," Crisis
in
Zimbabwe Coalition spokesman Dewa Mavhinga said.
"Should the elections be
rigged, which they will, Morgan Tsvangirai has
called for a clean divorce
from Zanu-PF."
He called for intervention in the election process by
South Africa, the
Southern African Development Community, the African Union
and United
Nations.
"We need them to monitor the situation on the
ground and make sure elections
are free, fair and peaceful," he
said.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe coalition is a group of more than 350 civil
society
organisations, formed in August 2001 in response to the human rights
and
leadership crisis facing the nation.
-Sapa
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by Munyaradzi Dube
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
13:43
HARARE - The Attorney-General’s office has drafted an indictment
for the
arrest of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on contempt of court
charges.
Well-placed sources in the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs
told The
Zimbabwean that Chief Law Officer Chris Mutangadura had prepared
the
document to be sent to the police, who will arrest
Tsvangirai.
Soon after the dethroning of Speaker of Parliament Lovemore
Moyo by a
Supreme Court ruling that nullified his election, Tsvangirai
described the
bench as a, “willing appendage of Zanu
(PF).”
Responding news of his possible arrest Tsvangirai said it would be
the end
of the GNU. “If there are people who want to arrest me, I am here
and I don’t
think I want to run away,” he said. “I have heard about it (the
arrest) and
we will see how they proceed but that will be the last nail in
this whole
delicate and fragile government.”
According to the draft,
Tsvangirai will be charged under Section 82(1)
subsections (a) and (b) of
the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act,
for his comments about the
bench.
The section reads: “Any person who, by any act or omission,
impairs the
dignity, reputation or authority of a court – intending to do so
or
realising that there is a real risk or possibility that his or her act or
omission may have such an effect, shall be guilty of contempt of court and
liable to a fine not exceeding level six or imprisonment for a period not
exceeding one year or both.”
Contacted for comment, Mutangadura
professed ignorance, “I have not seen
such a document I will be in a
position to inform you tomorrow,” he said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
23 March
2011
The manner in which mass graves are being ‘discovered’ and bodies
exhumed
from various disused mines in the country is raising more questions
than it
is providing answers, various commentators have said.
The
Fallen Hero’s Trust, an obscure group aligned to ZANU PF, claims to have
discovered 19 mass graves in the Mount Darwin district, with the remains of
what it says are thousands of people massacred by the white minority regime
before independence and thrown into the Monkey William Mine in Bembera
village.
Just like the anti-sanctions petition ZANU PF have carefully
coordinated the
exhumations, giving them prime time viewing on national
television. The plan
is said to involve whipping up emotions against the
West for past atrocities
committed by the Rhodesian regime and tie this in
with the Wests targeted
sanctions against members of the Mugabe
regime.
But questions have begun to emerge that raise doubts about
whether the
bodies being exhumed are those of people killed before
independence, or
after. In the eighties Mugabe’s crack 5th brigade troops
massacred close to
20 000 people in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces,
while thousands of
MDC supporters have been killed in the nearly 12 years
the party has been in
existence.
When diamonds where discovered in
the Chiadzwa fields of the Marange
district, the army quickly moved and
began slaughtering hundreds of illegal
panners, using helicopter gunships.
Reports began to emerge of ZANU PF
attempts to bury the bodies but council
after council refused to give
permission for any mass burials. Its
speculated the bodies were eventually
quietly disposed of.
Some of
the bodies being exhumed and shown on television still had hair and
clothes
intact and dripping body fluids. Questions are being raised about
how can
they be people killed 32 years ago. The manner of the exhumations
has also
been criticized for having no proper pathology or DNA testing to
determine
the identity of the bodies. The bodies are just being placed in a
heap on
the site with no proper handling.
Shockingly the NewsDay newspaper
reports that schoolchildren, teachers and
villagers were last Friday “forced
to go underground and view the bodies so
that they would appreciate the
extent of the brutalities of the Rhodesian
army.”
This ‘propaganda at
all costs mentality’ has been highly criticized as
nothing more than child
abuse. Children should never be subjected to the
horrific viewing of dead
bodies.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
23 March, 2011 08:19:00 by John Makumbe
OPINION -
Desperate to shore up some political support from the people of
this
country, Zanu (PF) has now resorted to the exhumation of the skeletons
of
some of the victims of the liberation struggle in the Shamva area.
It is
sad to think that the alleged atrocities were committed more than 30
years
ago, but the exhumations are only being undertaken today, as if the
powers
that be did not know of the existence of these mine shafts and their
gory
contents
Was it not Robert Mugabe who, on the day Zimbabwe attained
national
Independence, said, “If yesterday you were my enemy, today you are
my
friend…?” For 30 years as chief executive of this country, Mugabe
deliberately turned a blind eye to virtually all the violent atrocities that
were committed by the Smith regime during the liberation
struggle.
Why? Well, because he knows that he has perhaps just as many of
his own
skeletons to hide from the nation. We wait to see whether the group
that is
actively appealing for money to enable them to exhume these
skeletons will
proceed to Matabeleland as well and do the same gory
work.
What is even more amazing is the manner in which the skeletons are
being
hauled from the mine shaft, stuffed into plastic bags and supposedly
handed
over to “relatives” for decent reburial. There are no scientific
methods of
accurate identification of most of these victims. Some of the
skeletons are
literally just gathered by hand and lumped together as
belonging to someone
without any proof whatsoever of who that someone
was.
In the end, some families are going to be forced to bury skeletons
of people
they had no relationship with. This could easily open Pandora’s
Box as some
spirits may visit these families with a vengeance. Some
opportunistic
traditional leaders have suddenly come alive with all manner
of tall tales
about how some of these skeletons met their fate. The question
we ask them
is, “Where were you all these 30 years?” Why did you not
challenge the
Mugabe government to give these victims of the struggle a
decent burial?
The truth of the matter is that not all of these skeletons
are from the
atrocities committed by the Smith regime. There is a strong
possibility that
the Mugabe government may have also used the same “burial”
place to dumb
some of its own skeletons. We know that there are many people
who have
disappeared from the face of the earth as a result of the brutal
work of the
Mugabe regime.
Perhaps Rashiwe Guzha’s skeleton is among
those that are being exhumed
today. How convenient it would be for such a
skeleton to be found among the
hundreds that may have died at the hands of
the Smith regime. Like all
others, the skeleton would not be identified, and
so the desperate regime
would not need to answer any awkward
questions.
How many victims of the work of the CIO are among the
skeletons being
exhumed today? When will the group that is doing this work
visit Domboshawa
to exhume the bodies of several soldiers that were “buried”
there by night
only a few years ago?
The people of Matabeleland should
organize themselves and safeguard the
sacred sites where their loved ones
were unceremoniously dumped by the Fifth
Brigade during the Gukurahundi
“madness.”
Those sites should not be interfered with by Zanu (PF)
sponsored groups
masquerading as people that are concerned about giving the
victims of the
Smith regime a decent burial. These people have the critical
agenda of
messing up the evidence as well as marshalling political support
for the
ailing Zanu (PF) party.
Harare, March 23,
2011: To commemorate
World Water Day (March 22), the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) in Harare today demonstrated the efficiency and
effectiveness of rainwater collection activities at Tasimukira Primary School in
Chitungwiza. The Peri-urban ROOFtop Rainwater
‘Harvesting’ (PROOF)
program, which began in June 2009, provides safe drinking water to over 25,000
Zimbabweans in urban and rural areas.
International World
Water Day was initiated by the United Nations in 1993. It is held annually on
22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and
advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The
objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the
impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties
caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water
systems.
USAID’s PROOF program
is run by NGO International Relief and Development (IRD) on behalf of USAID’s
Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The initial phase of the
program focused on the high density suburbs of Harare and Chitungwiza. In June
2010, it expanded into Mutare and Buhera in southeastern
Zimbabwe.
To date, PROOF has
installed 805 rain water collection systems serving 2,653 households and eight
schools with 26,321 total beneficiaries. All components of the rain water
harvesting (RWH) systems are manufactured in Zimbabwe, creating jobs and a
nascent rain water collection industry in the free market.
USAID Director Karen
Freeman praised the program saying, “USAID, through its Office of U.S. Foreign
Disaster Assistance, is proud to contribute rain water collection systems that
will provide medium-term access to clean water for families and schools. With
the expansion of the program to rural areas, we anticipate a bigger impact.
This is particularly important for overburdened rural schools, which are trying
to teach students while maintaining basic infrastructure with few
resources.”
Rain water collection
systems consist of roof gutters and a water storage tank. The equipment
provides abundant clean water during the rainy season, when the highest
incidents of waterborne diseases, such as cholera and typhoid fever, are seen.
With regulated consumption and sufficient water storage capacity, these
rainwater collection systems can provide clean drinking water all year
round.
In addition to
improving access to clean water, the PROOF Rainwater Harvesting program also
engages communities in water, sanitation and health activities, and serves as an
example of rainwater collection for other NGOs and local institutions. In
addition, all parts of the rainwater harvesting system are manufactured in
Zimbabwe and the project has generated work for 16 teams of builders and 8 teams
of plumbers. All equipment used by the PROOF program was manufactured at four
local factories.
The U.S. Agency for
International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance
worldwide for almost 50 years. For more information on USAID programs, please
visit www.usaid.gov/.
Comments and queries
should be addressed to Ms. Cary Jimenez, USAID Communications Officer. E-mail:
cjimenez@usaid.gov.
Tel. +263 4 250 992.
Or Sharon
Hudson-Dean, U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Officer: hararepas@state.gov
Tel. +263 4 758800-1.
##
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Beyond the stubborn devious acts by Zanu Pf and the Mugabe regime of denying
change, it is apparent that greed for power and wealth has become the life
blood of this aging regime. Reports and revelations on the amounts and
increase of personal wealth being accumulated by and among Zanu Pf elites
and those within the connections clearly show the power and effects of
unchecked greed. In its attempt to stifle and hoodwink Zimbabweans, the
Mugabe regime and its state machinery have embarked on a vindictive self
righteous attitude through which all the wrongs are committed by the
opposition; thankfully evidence is available for all to see the
contrary.
Continued reports of arrests, intimidation, harassment and
threats to
opposition & perceived members all over the country by Zanu
Pf indicate the
extend to which the regime is so blinded by selfish greed
and keeps making
thin-veiled attempts to mask this greed under the pretext
of ‘maintaining
law and order’ only to protect their loot at the expense of
ordinary
citizens. Recent events on the raving and ranting from within Zanu
Pf’s
inner circle over comments on the judiciary’s ruling (threats of arrest
with
accusations of being in contempt of court against opposition members)
only
serve to illustrate the hypocrisy so entrenched within Zanu Pf and its
ruling elite. History is obliterated with scenes and such like comments from
Zanu Pf leaders criticizing the judiciary and yet no charges were ever made
to those loyal to the ruling regime.
With repulsive simmering anger
ordinary Zimbabweans watch and read reports
of the continued personalization
of the state resources by Zanu Pf elites
and their connections. Zanu Pf and
the Mugabe regime has become wolves in
sheep’s cloth masquerading as
nationalists ‘suddenly’ pushing for
indigenization only to appropriate and
feed their insatiable greed for power
and wealth at the expense and
continued suffering of the populace. As was
the case with the ousted Smith
regime, Zanu Pf is using any means necessary
to protect and enrich their
interests with gloated egos.
Nelson Mandela in 1999 passed on the
leadership baton in acknowledgement of
the passage of time and the
imperative call of democracy. Zanu Pf and the
Mugabe regime continue to deny
passing-on the leadership race baton
preferring to run the race on their own
and declare themselves ‘winners’.
The Mugabe regime is swift and ruthless to
crush and silence voices of
dissent labeling any such voices as puppets and
or sellouts. This is a
tactic reminiscent of the Smith regime which
eventually led to popular
upraising; an act conveniently forgotten by the
Zanu Pf regime. Recent
events in Libya (from name calling of those asking
for change to outright
brutality and suppression) clearly show the extent to
which the political
elite are prepared to ‘hang on’ under the banners of
sovereignty,
anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism etc all in an attempt to
protect and feed
their bottomless greed at the expense of the ordinary
citizen.
One wonders what happened to the liberation ethos from the
Lusaka manifesto
of 1969 which clearly states ‘a preference to negotiate
rather than destroy,
to talk rather than to kill’- which Zanu Pf should be
reminded lest in its
zeal and quest to remain in power, Zimbabwe and
Zimbabweans are destroyed
all in defence of this greed by Zanu Pf and the
Mugabe regime.
By Takura Chiketa
Political Activist,
London