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Zimbabwe's Request For UN Election Funding in Limbo

http://www.voazimbabwe.com

Blessing  Zulu
29.03.2013

WASHINGTON — Zimbabwe’s request for election funding from the United Nations
is in limbo as bickering among the three parties in the coalition government
continues.

In a press statement released after a meeting with the so-called Friends of
Zimbabwe donor nations in London this week, Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa said Zanu-PF will not welcome a UN assessment team in the country,
saying it does not want the UN to interfere in Zimbabwe’s politics.

Chinamasa said the country will welcome financial resources to buy cars,
materials and equipment necessary to support the logistics needed for
upcoming elections, but noted that Zimbabwe rejects any attempt to assess
the nation's political, legal, institutional, technical and electoral
systems.

The minister underscored the fact that Zimbabwe has "the technical and
institutional capacity to hold free and fair elections as demonstrated over
the years and recently by the referendum."

Mr. Chinamasa underlined the fact that the mechanisms and structures that
Zimbabwe has in place were a result of a protracted and delicate process of
negotiations by the three parties to the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Zanu-PF therefore said it does not want any foreigners to open discussions
on these matters as that will be "tantamount to taking the process
backwards."

But the UN says a Needs Assessment Mission is a required first step in
responding to a request from a member state for electoral support submitted
to the organization.

It says once a Needs Assessment Mission is conducted, the findings are
submitted to the UN Focal Point at the UN Headquarters.

Based on the findings of the assessment, the Focal Point will determine the
level of support the UN may provide and, as appropriate, recommend that the
United Nations Development Programme prepare an electoral assistance
project.

However, Energy Minister Elton Mangoma of the Movement for Democratic Change
formation of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told VOA that the MDC is open
to an assessment.

Zimbabwe's 2008 elections were marred by extreme violence. In the aftermath,
the country's two main political parties were forced to share power.


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India to consider $400-million LOC proposals from Zimbabwe

http://newindianexpress.com

By ENS Economic Bureau - NEW DELHI
30th March 2013 09:48 AM

The Commerce Ministry said on Friday that India would consider Lines of
Credit (LOC) proposals valued at $400 million to Zimbabwe. The latter in
turn has promised to look into the delays in issuing visas to businessmen.

After meeting Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare on
Thursday, Union Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma
co-chaired a India-Zimbabwe Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting along with
Zimbabwean Minister of Commerce and Industry Welshman Ncube.

“Lines of Credit (LOC) proposals worth $400 million from the Zimbabwean side
will be considered and Zimbabwe could also avail the ‘Buyers Credit Scheme’
and the ‘pilot 2 % Interest subvention scheme’ for projects in Zimbabwe,”
the statement said quoting Sharma.

While India has already cleared LOC worth $28.6 million for upgradation of
Deka Pumping Station and River Water Intake System in Zimbabwe, there are
two more LOC proposals that are being actively considered, namely
Rehabilitation of Small Thermal Stations and the Gairezi Hydro Electric
Project, and Bulawayo Power Station Upgrade Project.

Zimbabwe sought India’s help in reviving the manufacturing sector and sought
investments and technical assistance. Both nations discussed bilateral trade
and investment relations as well as areas of co-operation including
textiles, agro-food processing sector, gems and jewellery, industrial
cluster initiatives, capacity building programmes and establishing of
commodity exchange in Zimbabwe.


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Government fails to pay university fees

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

29/03/2013 00:00:00
     by Staff Reporter

UNIVERSITIES and colleges across the country are owed US$64 million in
unpaid tuition fees under a government-funded support scheme in a
development that has left up to 40,000 students facing the risk of failing
to continue their studies.

Under a so-called cadetship scheme introduced in 2010, the State pays
tuition fees for qualifying students who, after completing their studies,
must work for the government for periods equivalent to the number of years
they received the support.

But the government has failed to release funding under the programme with up
to 40,000 students affected by the problem last year, acting Higher
Education Minister, Ignatius Chombo, has revealed.

“The major challenge that state universities face is the non-release of
cadetship funds,” Chombo told reporters in Harare this week.

“In 2012, only 10,000 students benefitted from the cadetship scheme while
more than 40,000 failed to access these funds. All tertiary institutions are
currently owed a total of US$64 million in unpaid.”

Chombo said the government’s failure to release the funding was compromising
operations at the country’s universities and colleges.

“We have made an appeal to the Minister of Finance to assist; to amortise
the US$64 million debt and at least give the (higher education) ministry a
million dollars per month to cushion the universities from further
embarrassment,” Chombo said.

“The ministry is grateful to parents and guardians who have continued to
contribute towards the education of their children.

"Their contribution towards the universities operations has increased from
10 percent in 2003-04 to 20 percent in 2013. This signifies a 100 percent
increase but support from the State has declined over the same period.”

He said most service providers were now demanding cash upfront when dealing
with state institutions, a development that has seen most universities and
colleges failing to access basic services for the students.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union has had numerous clashes with the
Ministry of Finance over the non-payment of cadetship funds with treasury
chief, Tendai Biti, saying the government does not have the money.

Last year, the late Higher Education Minister, Stan Mudenge, blasted Biti
for failing to support the programme saying Treasury had only released US$1
million out of the required US$42 million.

“Treasury is not paying the money it prom­ised in the budget,” Mudenge said
in September.
“The unreasonable partner is Treasury not the universities. I met him
(Minister Biti) and he said he would release some­thing straightaway but he
has not done any­thing.

“He is not even sensitive to the pressures the universities and polytechnics
are going through.”


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Zimbabwe hangman raises execution fears

http://www.aljazeera.com

Hiring of new executioner ignites debate on fate of 77 death row inmates and
country's dormant capital punishment.

Gift Phiri Last Modified: 30 Mar 2013 11:14

Harare, Zimbabwe - In Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on the outskirts of
Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, there are 77 convicts who have been condemned to
death by hanging.

Held in solitary confinement in cells close to the gallows, some of those
condemned to death have been there for more than a decade, their appeals
rejected by President Robert Mugabe.

Although the death penalty is still on the books in Zimbabwe, there have
been no executions since 2004, in part because there was no hangman.

But a macabre development could potentially activate the dormant penalty.
Years of unsuccessful headhunting by the country’s Justice and Legal Affairs
ended last September with a sombre announcement by Justice and Legal Affairs
secretary David Mangota: the government had secured a hangman who was
"raring to go".

Little is known of the hangman, who is rumoured to be from Malawi.
Authorities have refused to clear any interviews with him.

The announcement came as a surprise, given the ambivalence within the
Zimbabwean criminal justice system about executions. Although capital
punishment was codified during British rule, which ended in 1980, evolving
jurisprudence and new sensitivities within Zimbabwe have limited the actual
practice to the barest minimum.

The recruitment has sharply divided the government - formed between
President Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, who is now prime
minister.

"Whoever sanctioned the hiring of a hangman at this juncture of Zimbabwe's
jurisprudential history is obviously of unsound mind."

- Obert Gutu, deputy justice and legal affairs minister

The Justice and Legal Affairs ministry is a shared portfolio: minister
Chinamasa belongs to Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic
Front (ZANU-PF) and his deputy Obert Gutu is a member of Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Chinamasa says in a country with high levels of violence and regular reports
of grisly rapes and murders, the perpetrators of such crimes are "worthy" of
death sentences.

However, his deputy Gutu is staunchly opposed to the recruitment.

"It's bizarre and odious in the extreme," the deputy minister said. "Whoever
sanctioned the hiring of a hangman at this juncture of Zimbabwe's
jurisprudential history is obviously of unsound mind. For how else can you
describe such an absurd decision to engage the services of a hangman when
the draft constitution has made it quite apparent that the death penalty is
on its way out?

Gutu added that there will not be any executions taking place in the near
future.

Abolishing capital punishment

With 77 prisoners on death row, there is a growing clamour to abolish
capital punishment through the ongoing constitution-making process.

Zimbabwe’s new constitution prohibits the death penalty for all women, as
well as men who were under 21 at the time of the crime and those over 70. It
also bans using the death penalty as a mandatory punishment.

The new constitution, overwhelmingly approved by Zimbabweans during a
national referendum on March 16, puts greater limits on the use of capital
punishment. Two women on death row recieved stays on their proposed
executions after the draft constitution won support in the referendum.

Human rights group Amnesty International said while the proposed limitations
to applying the punishment are welcome, it called for the death penalty to
be abolished fully in the new constitution, regardless of gender and the
circumstances in which a crime was committed.

“This macabre recruitment [of a new hangman] is disturbing and suggests that
Zimbabwe does not want to join the global trend towards abolition of this
cruel, inhuman and degrading form of punishment,” Noel Kututwa, the southern
Africa director for Amnesty, said.

Human rights groups and other non-governmental agencies have been
circulating petitions calling for the abolition of the death penalty for
some time now.

Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe chairperson Virginia Muwanigwa said: “We want
the death penalty to be removed from our constitution and our laws
completely. One important reason for this is that it is mostly poor people
who often get hanged.”

She spoke as the UN chief Ban Ki-moon stepped up calls for a global
moratorium on applying the death penalty. “A global moratorium is a crucial
stepping stone towards full worldwide abolition,” Deputy High Commissioner
for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang said in a speech delivered at the UN Human
Rights Council in Geneva last month on behalf of Ban.

Revived national debate

"Look at the Zimbabwean context and the level of funded political violence,
but also the emergence of ritual killings. I think the issue of capital
punishment should be maintained."

- Sydney Chisi, civil rights campaigner

Within Zimbabwe, opinion is sharply divided, and the possibility of resuming
executions has stoked a national debate.

Former national director of the Zimbabwean National Constitutional Assembly
Earnest Mudzengi believes that capital punishment must be abolished. “It is
degrading, and is against God-endowed values of humanity,” he said.

Mary Moyo, a vendor in Harare, holds the same views, believing that “only
God has the right to take life”.

But Samson Marecha, a self-employed motor mechanic, says abolishing capital
punishment will foment crime. “There are times when you need an eye for an
eye,” he argued.

His views are similar to those of civil rights campaigner Sydney Chisi, who
backs the death penalty as a deterrent for crime and political violence. He
spoke as Christpower Maisiri, the 12-year-old son of a district organiser
and aspiring legislator for the MDC, died in what the party called a
“politically motivated attack” by alleged militants of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF.

"Look at the Zimbabwean context and the level of funded political violence,
but also the emergence of ritual killings. I think the issue of capital
punishment should be maintained,” Chisi said. “The constitution should allow
that provision so as to manage the violence we are engulfed in.”

Meanwhile, men on death row such as convicted murderer Shepherd Mazango, who
robbed and hacked a man to death, have raised constitutional arguments in a
Supreme Court challenge against the death penalty.

Convicted to die by hanging in November 2009, Mazango's presidential mercy
petition fell through. He has filed an emergency motion with the courts, but
because court cases have been known to take ages without judgments,
Zimbabwean defence lawyers have raised arguments that forcing someone
accused or even convicted of a capital offence to wait for years before an
execution amounted to cruel and unusual punishment - which the constitution
says is illegal.

Mazango wants his sentence commuted to life in prison, and says he has
suffered anguish on death row because of the delay in execution.

"This [delay in execution] has caused severe trauma on the inmates that some
of them are losing their mind," Mazango said in his constitutional challenge
in the Supreme Court.

"The very thought that I am dying steals all my hope for the future, makes
me restless and the delay traumatises me. It causes me emotional and
psychological trauma. Worse still, to think that I can spend 13 years before
execution like my colleague George Manyonga crushes me."


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Group wants Ugandan prisoners released

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

29/03/2013 00:00:00
     by Staff Reporter

HUMAN rights activists in Uganda this week appealed to the International
Human Rights Commission to intervene and force the Zimbabwe and South
African governments to release and deport Ugandans held in prisons in the
two countries.

The executive director of Uganda's Human Rights Defenders, Gideon Tugume,
told reporters in Kampala that many Ugandans being held in prisons without
going to trial in the two countries.

“There are about 5,800 Ugandans held in prisons of both countries. More than
500 Ugandan prisoners have been identified in South Africa (mainly in
Pretoria and Johannesburg) and more than 5,000 in Zimbabwe,” said Tugume.

However, with prisons chief Paradzai Zimondi revealing last September that
there were about 15,000 inmates in the country’s 55 prisons, Tugume’s claims
would suggest Ugandans make up an unlikely one third of Zimbabwe’s prison
population.

Still, Tugume said most of the Ugandans were being held at Khami Prison,
Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison as well as at Gwanda Prison and Harare
Remand Prison.

“Some of these people that are imprisoned in these countries are not even
criminals, they are taken there after being promised jobs especially by some
companies that have been advertising job opportunities for unemployed people
who want to work out there,” he said.

Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Okello Oryem, also said the rights groups
were making the claims merely to justify donor funds but said his government
was prepared to look into the issue.

“I am not dismissing the reports but their approach is wrong. They should
have contacted me or the other Foreign Affairs ministers. We are ready to
listen and help them,” Oryem said.

Some foreigners held at Harare Remand Prison who have already served their
sentences recently claimed they had been told they could not be deported
because the government did not have the money to pay for their air-fares.

Said Tanzanian national, Emanuel Simon: “Immigration said the government
does not have money to deport foreigners. We are doing nothing here. Even
the Zimbabwean prisoners are saying ‘these guys are finishing our food for
nothing’.”

Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makoni said she was not aware of the
problems: "It is patently wrong and unfair. It is an abuse of people's
freedoms.

"It is very sad that we charge someone that we cannot then send back to
their countries."


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Barclays reaches deal with Zimbabwe in precedent for sector

http://www.bdlive.co.za/

BY TAWANDA KAROMBO, MARCH 27 2013, 11:00

HARARE — Barclays’ unit in Zimbabwe has submitted an empowerment compliance
plan that government officials say is acceptable despite Empowerment
Minister Saviour Kasukuwere’s failure to attend a meeting scheduled for
Tuesday with Barclays Africa CEO Kennedy Bungane.

The Harare meeting was set for 3pm but Mr Kasukuwere was attending a cabinet
meeting. It was expected that Mr Kasukuwere and Mr Bungane would hold
"progressive" discussions to have Barclays become fully compliant with the
country’s indigenisation laws.

Mr Bungane is said to have insisted on meeting Mr Kasukuwere, who is locked
in a bitter fight over indigenisation compliance thresholds for foreign
banks with central bank governor Gideon Gono.

It has now emerged that Zimbabwe has "provisionally" accepted Barclays’
indigenisation compliance plan.

Sources in the banking sector said Barclays’ compliance would give impetus
to Mr Kasukuwere’s bid to intensify his crackdown on foreign banks.

"If Barclays’ plan has been accepted, then all the other foreign banks have
to follow because a precedent has been set and it’s already clear from the
minister that there are no sacred cows. Barclays is a big bank, its
compliance, just like that of Zimplats, is a great move," said a bank
executive who declined to be named.

Mr Kasukuwere confirmed to Business Day last night that the government was
"not unhappy" with the bank’s plans and confirmed that Tuesday’s meeting had
not taken place. He would not provide details of Barclays’ compliance plan.

"The meeting did not take place. I was attending a cabinet meeting and Mr
Bungane had wanted to meet with me while we had proposed that he meet the
(empowerment ministry’s) permanent secretary," Mr Kasukuwere said.

Barclays is one of four foreign-owned banks in Zimbabwe that have been given
a June deadline to cede majority shares to black Zimbabwean groups. The
others are MBCA, owned by Nedbank, Stanbic Bank and Standard Chartered.

Mr Bungane is in Zimbabwe for a series of meetings in Harare with government
officials, executives from the central bank and employees of Barclays
Zimbabwe.

By the time of writing on Wednesday, Barclays Zimbabwe spokesman Dennis
Mambure had not yet responded to questions e-mailed for comment on Tuesday.

Government officials are locked in a bitter dispute over the indigenisation
of foreign banks. The fight between Mr Kasukuwere and Mr Gono has worsened
in the past few days. On Tuesday Mr Gono was forced to issue a statement
saying he had not fled Zimbabwe to Egypt, following speculation that he had
been "marked for arrest" for allegedly urging foreign banks not to comply
with the indigenisation law.

"Many in my circle of operation know that every quarter I attend a board
meeting of the African Export Import Bank, headquartered in Cairo," Mr Gono
said. "These business meetings and trips are planned well in advance."


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Graft contagion besets Zimbabwe mining sector

http://www.miningmx.com

Memory Mataranyika | Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:55

[miningmx.com] – CORRUPTION in Zimbabwe's mining sector was thrown to the
top of the agenda again with the European Union insisting the country's
state-owned miner must remain under restriction.

In a separate development, a prominent Zimbabwean minister has accused
sources in the government of motivating an anti-graft investigation against
him regarding several empowerment deals in that country.

The two instances bolster the perception of Zimbabwe as one of the most
corrupt places to do business, especially in the mining sector. The Fraser
Institute, in its recently published Policy Potential Index (PPI) Score,
ranked Zimbabwe as the most corrupt mining district.

“Corrupt beyond description and, from a mining point of view, a shambles in
each and every conceiveable respect,” on respondent to the Fraser
Institute's PPI survey was quoted as saying.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) is probing officials
including executives from the National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Board (NIEEB) and other government officials such as Empowerment
Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere and for irregularities in concluding an
empowerment deal for Zimplats.

However, Kasukuwere has responded, telling Miningmx that the probe being
carried out by ZACC is baseless as the anti-graft body has never sought to
establish the irregular conduct allegations from him or from officials at
NIEEB.

The anti-corruption commission, which has faced political pressure following
initial moves to probe Zimbabwean government officials for alleged corrupt
activities, insisted last week that it will forge ahead with the probes.

Kasukuwere accused the anti-graft commission of investigating Zanu PF
officials on behalf of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) which shares power in a government of unity with
Zanu PF.

Tsvangirai is expected to face off against President Robert Mugabe in
elections expected in July following disputed elections in 2008.

"Anti-Corruption Commission was busy investigating on behalf of the MDC.
That's a ruse, those are stupid allegations. They have never sought to ask
us, they never spoke to NIEEB," said Kasukuwere in an interview, declining
to comment further.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) will remain
under restrictions from the European Union, with experts saying the state
owned mining company – which is involved in mining diamonds in the
controversial Chiadzwa gem fields – is used "to fund repression" in
Zimbabwe.

The ZMDC has been at the centre of alleged human rights violations in the
mining of diamonds in Chiadzwa. It has been on the European Union sanctions
list over the last couple of years following outbreaks of violence in the
Chiadzwa diamond fields.

ZMDC has partnered companies allegedly backed by the army and other Chinese
to mine diamonds in Eastern Zimbabwe.

Pedzisai Ruhanya, a Zimbabwe expert and director for the Zimbabwe Democracy
Institute (ZDI) said this week the ZMDC was responsible for sponsoring
repression against the people of Zimbabwe.

“The ZMDC is being used to create a war-chest by Zanu PF. Diamonds are used
to fight the transition towards democracy,” he said.

Zimbabwe Finance Minister, Tendai Biti says the treasury is not receiving
proceeds from diamond mining companies backed by the ZMDC.

This has created a divide with Mines and Mining Development Minister, Obert
Mpofu, accused of shielding the ZMDC from remitting revenue to the fiscus
and of benefiting from suspected corrupt activities and kick-backs, amid
charges that Zimbabwe military and other government officials are plundering
state resources.

The EU refused to remove ZMDC from its list of companies and individuals
slapped with travel restrictions and embargoes. Ten other individuals,
including army, police, intelligence and air-force chiefs as well as the
Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) Mugabe and his wife, Grace are still under
the EU’s restrictions despite the lifting early this week of embargoes
against 81 individuals.

"Those left on the list are the ones that are critical. They can facilitate
or block transition to democracy. They are responsible for the anarchy, they
are responsible for the failure of the rule of law,” added Ruhanya.

In a third development, Impala Platinum said that its subsidiary, Zimplats,
had objected to the Zimbabwean government's seizure of some 27,948 hectares
of land held by Zimplats.

On February 13, Mpofu said the government had repossessed the land and, at
the same time, called for construction of a platinum refinery in the country
rather than have foreign miners add value to its ore outside its borders.


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Zimbabwe Has A New Constitution, But Disputes Over The Land Provisions Continue — By Ian Scoones

http://africanarguments.org/

March 29, 2013

On March 16th, Zimbabweans voted on a new Constitution in a national
referendum. The voting was largely peaceful, and the turnout higher than
expected, with over 3 million people voting. With all major parties
supporting it, the result was a resounding 93% ‘yes’. This endorsement paves
the way for elections in the coming months. It is also an important signal
that a new commitment to moving forward has been reached, one that
international donors have agreed to respect with the removal of further
‘sanctions’.

The Constitution is naturally a compromise document, one hammered out in
parliament by all the parties. It involved wide consultation, with inputs
from the public. Given Zimbabwe’s immediate political past, it is in many
respects a remarkable achievement. It is of course rough at the edges, and
not everyone agrees with every section, but it now does exist, and should,
in my view, by celebrated.

Of course one of the controversial areas has been the issue of land (see
earlier blog). Some are very unhappy about the provisions, blaming the MDC
in particular for conceding too much. Ben Freeth, the former farmer
activist, isparticularly outspoken. In a slightly more considered
contribution, Dale Dore asks, can the new Constitution bring about a just,
legal and transparent land policy? He answers, “The prospects,
unfortunately, look decidedly bleak. Chapter 16 entrenches the outcome of
land invasions and the seizures of farms and property. The draft
Constitution also retains provisions under section 72 that are inimical to
international law, human rights and the rule of law”.

What then are Dore’s complaints? He argues that the separation of provisions
on property rights from rights over agricultural land is a big mistake, as
the section on agricultural lands restricts rights, running against natural
justice. He is particularly concerned about the long-talked about Land
Commission, as he thinks it will not have teeth, and will be easily
captured. He notes:

“The most important retreat, however, has been to make the Land Commission
an advisory body to Government rather than an independent parastatal
organisation with executive authority. The Commission may make
recommendations on a host of issues – including land tenure and
compensation – but it lacks any real powers of implementation or teeth for
enforcement. Decisions governing land remain firmly in the hands of the
President and his appointed minister”

While Section 297(6)” tries to give the impression of independence and
impartiality”, he argues that this is not sufficient. This he worries will
mean that a Land Audit, also a requirement in the Constitution, will not be
fair, as it will be overseen by the Commission.

Overall he argues, that the section on land – Chapter 16 – “maintains all
the discriminatory provisions governing farmland found in the current
Constitution”. He argues that there will be inadequate notice of compulsory
acquisition and that compensation will be paid for improvements only, and
not the full value of the land. He objects to the proposed dispute
settlement mechanism, arguing runs against basic principles of ‘rule of law’,
being an administrative not judiciary process. He argues that, as a result,
the Constitution is not in line with earlier rulings by the now disbanded
SADC Tribunal ruling. Yet, as I and others have commented before, this
obsession with this particular ruling forgets that the proposed
constitutional provisions are actually in line with much international
practice, and perfectly compatible with ‘the rule of law’, as long as the
rules and regulations are abided by. This of course is the critical point.
The test will be in the practice, and the demonstrated impartiality and
effectiveness of systems of land acquisition, compensation and dispute
settlement. Given recent experience, Dore and others are right to be
concerned, but have no real argument for rejecting the provisions as a
whole.

Before jumping to excessively negative conclusions, we have to understand
the political context for the new Constitution, in order to judge it
properly. In a heated debate at the end of February on the new Constitution,
chaired by Violet Gonda in the Hot Seat slot on SW Africa Radio, Professor
Brian Raftopoulos commented:

“Well I think the first thing to point out is that this constitution was a
central part of the mediation process. It was always therefore going to be a
compromise document and part of a broader process of trying to establish the
conditions for a free and fair election – which was the original objective
of the SADC mediation. There’s clearly things in the constitution which are
problematic; there’s also things which I think establish a very good basis
for moving forward and I think that as part of a long term process of
discussion between the parties which was established through the mediation,
it’s a step forward and one should look at it as that”.

On land, he notes:

“This land process has produced many contradictory results. As recent
research shows, it hasn’t been the complete failure people thought it was
but at the same time it hasn’t ended the land question. It’s raised a whole
series of new issues, which are going to confront Zimbabweans throughout –
for the coming decades. So this issue hasn’t been resolved and there are
harder questions ahead”.

Of course the land question is not going to be fully resolved by the
Constitution. But hopefully the Constitution sets the basic parameters: the
land reform is not reversible; rights to land are circumscribed by the state
to avoid abuse; compensation for improvements are offered if land is
acquired by the state; land administration and distribution is overseen by a
competent authority in the Land Commission; and abuses are corrected through
a transparent Land Audit. All of these provisions are actually good ones,
and compatible with international practices, but will only work if the
appropriate political and administrative conditions apply. Given recent
experience, this is of course a concern, and why a wider political
resolution of the on-going political impasse in Zimbabwe is so urgently
needed.

However, given that it has now been approved by the referendum, and given
that the Constitution represents an important moment in the mediation
process to create such political conditions, surely its basic principles
need now to be respected. Sure, there will be need for working out the
details of the Commission, the Audit and the associated regulations to
govern any land administration processes, but the overarching basis for
these, surely, is now set.

Or is it? Dale Dore refers to a discussion with a ‘senior MDC politician’
who noted that: “The MDC had to make compromises. If it conceded to ZANU(PF)
on the land issue, he said, “so what?” Anyway, he added, land is not a major
issue for the great majority. The issue of land and land policy was
something the MDC could fix once in power”. This seems more like a threat to
unravel things that have been agreed, even as reluctant compromises. In an
email exchange on Dore’s piece as part of probably the most bizarre email
list I am copied in to, Eddie Cross MP, the MDC’s Policy Coordinator General
(who supported a yes vote with 10 reasons), commented on 10 March,
“Excellent as usual – but so long as everyone understands that this was the
main focus of concession to the views of Zanu PF in the negotiation and was
a compromise – it is not the final word on the issue of agricultural land”.

Yes the Constitution is a compromise. Yes it emerged through negotiation
between parties that did not agree. And, yes, it is not the final word. As
Brian Raftopolous pointed out in the SW Africa Radio discussion, “there are
still a lot of issues around the land [issue] which wouldn’t necessarily be
dealt with simply through the constitution – issues which will have to be
dealt with through legislation coming afterwards and through political and
technical processes that need to take place in the aftermath of what has
happened”.

But does this mean that the basic tenets of the Constitution should be
dismissed? Technical and administrative details will be required of course,
but should a party go into an election essentially saying that key sections
are up for grabs? What if ZANU-PF said the same? There would, quite
appropriately, be uproar. Equally, for the resumption of international
development assistance to be conditional on changes to the now approved
Constitution, as Dale Dore seems to suggest, would be madness.

The new Constitution, with its inevitable flaws, now at last provides the
basis for moving forward: hopefully towards the removal of sanctions and
free and fair elections in a few months time. This is by no means assured,
and the unlawful arrests of MDC officials and their lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa,
does not bode well, with a return to ‘brute power’ suggested by some. But
equally we cannot succumb to fatalism, a trait so common among the
commentariat. Let us also hope that after the elections, the parties respect
the Constitution and the painful, slow, but ultimately successful, process
of creating it, with all its difficult compromises, was not in vain. A
process of healing, compromise and looking to the future is what all
Zimbabweans need above all. If any party comes into power and rips up
sections of the Constitution they don’t like, is this a good result? For
this reason, I, for one, would favour another coalition government; one
that, this time, is genuinely committed to national unity and development,
so the spirit of compromise with all its awkwardness and faults, embedded in
the Constitution provides the basis for a brighter future.

This post was written by Ian Scoones and originally appeared on Zimbabweland


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Embracing life's challenges - Trevor Ncube at TEDxEuston

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/
 

Trevor Ncube is Chairman of Alpha Media Holdings (AMH ) based in Zimbabwe, a company he co-founded 14 years ago. AMH owns three newspaper titles in Zimbabwe namely NewsDay (daily), The Zimbabwe Independent (business weekly) and The Standard (Sunday). Ncube has a BA Honours (First Class) from the University of Zimbabwe. He started in journalism in 1989 when he was appointed assistant editor of the Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe. In 1991 he was promoted to Executive Editor and in 1994 received the Zimbabwe Editor of the Year award. Ncube is also controlling shareholder and Executive Deputy Chairman of the Mail & Guardian Media Group (South Africa).


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