http://www.radiovop.com/
10/05/2011
10:37:00
Harare, May 10, 2011 - A team of South African negotiators
facilitating the
Zimbabwean political party dialogue aimed at ending the
country’s decade
long political crisis are planning to meet with members of
the security
sector to discuss their future and role in politics.
A
spokesperson of the facilitating team told Radio VOP that her team was
ready
to meet the securocrats to here their concerns on the political future
of
the country.
The role of the security sector in the country’s politics is
one of the
contentious issues that threaten the successful implementation of
the GPA
and conclusion of a roadmap to the country’s
elections.
“Security Sector Reform is now on the agenda ahead of next
elections. The
facilitation team has resolved to engage the securocrats
directly to present
concerns and also to hear their concerns,” said
Ambassador Lindiwe Zulu,
President Jacob Zuma’s International Affairs
adviser who also acts as the
facilitation team’s spokesperson.
The
role of the security sector in politics has been one of the major
impediments to the completion of a crucial elections roadmap. The MDC wants
security chiefs to publicly denounce violence and swore allegiance to the
constitution not political parties. However Zanu (PF) has been digging in
saying the securocrats should not be put on the discursive agenda of the
political parties.
The securocrats have in the past vowed that they
will not accept any
politician without liberation war credentials to become
the president of
Zimbabwe. They have also played a very pronounced role in
the country’s
politics.
Analysts believe if the question of
securocrat’s role in politics is not
handled conclusively the country will
never be guaranteed a smooth transfer
of power in the event that another
politician not from Zanu (PF) wins
elections.
SADC however appears to
e hardening its stance on Zimbabwe since the organ
troika summit held in
Livingstone, Zambia.
The SADC appointed facilitator Jacob Zuma will today
dispatch his envoy Mac
Maharaj to Harare to continue with talks focussed on
an election roadmap
which has to be agreed before a crucial SADC summit
meeting on Zimbabwe
scheduled for Namibia next week.
“SADC is
committed to democracy and free and fair elections. The spirit of
Livingstone (the stern SADC Troika Resolutions spirit) is very much alive
and strong,” said Zulu.
Meanwhile Zulu told Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition in Zimbabwe representative
in South Africa on Monday that South
Africa did not want Zimbabwe to hold
violent elections like those that were
held in 2008.
Zulu told Dewa Mavhinga, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
Regional Information
and Advocacy Coordinator that Zimbabwe's next elections
must be ‘totally
different’. Mavhinga met Zulu to hear the progress that has
been made by the
facilitation team on the Zimbabwe crisis.
“I had a
meeting with Ambassador Lindiwe Zulu in Pretoria on the side-lines
of a
Southern African Liaison Office (SALO) High Level Meeting on the
Zimbabwe
Roadmap to Elections where we both made presentations. She said
tomorrow
(Tuesday) one member of the Facilitation Team will travel to Harare
to meet
with the principals to push the Roadmap issues where there is no
agreement,”
Mavhinga said.
“Zulu said Zimbabwe will not have elections in 2011
because there is a lot
of work to be done in the area of reforms and
creating a conducive
environment for free and fair elections. The GPA and
its full implementation
is the basis of the Elections Roadmap but will take
on board various views
from all stakeholders and will be informed by 2008
elections experiences.”
Mavhunga said Zulu said the security sector
reforms issue is now on the
agenda ahead of next elections and the
facilitation team has resolved to
“engage the securocrats directly to
present concerns and also to hear their
concerns.”
He added that Zulu
could not confirm the full SADC summit on May 20 and that
sanctions imposed
by the West on President Robert Mugabe and his inner
circle must
go.
“The SADC Extra-ordinary Summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for 20 May in
Windhoek
is not confirmed yet as there are clashing meetings that may lead
to it
being shifted - but SADC Troika is fully aware of the need to urgently
meet
over Zimbabwe,” Mavhinga said.
“She said sanctions need to go
because she and team believe they are not
serving their intended purpose and
secondly, they are impeding good progress
being made.”
Radio VOP
understands that Zuma has send Mac Maharaj to meet Zimbabwe
political
parties principals over the agreements and disagreements that were
made in
Cape Town.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Guthrie Munyuki, News Editor
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
14:39
HARARE - Negotiators to the Global Political Agreement (GPA)
have agreed to
set up an independent commission of inquiry to probe the role
of security
forces in the abductions, torture and beatings of civilians
across the
country.
The agreement, which is intended to pave the
way for much-needed security
sector reforms, was reached at the difficult
Cape Town inter-party talks
last week, the Daily News learnt last
night.
At the same time, a member of the Sadc facilitation team to the
GPA said
ominously yesterday that Zimbabwe’s political crisis could not “go
on
forever”.
Speaking in Pretoria, Ambassador Lindiwe Zulu,
spokeswoman of the
three-person mediation team for Zimbabwe and President
Jacob Zuma’s
international relations advisor, also ruled out the possibility
of elections
being held in Zimbabwe this year.
“What is happening in
Zimbabwe now cannot go on forever. At some point it
has to stop. We need to
create a conducive environment and strengthen
institutions. There is clear
acceptance by all three parties that they need
time for doing all the work
that needs to be done,” Zulu told a conference
that was being held to
discuss Zimbabwe’s political future.
Last year, a frustrated President
Robert Mugabe said he wanted Zimbabwe to
hold elections this year, a
position that is supported by the country’s
partisan securocrats, to end his
two-year-old power-sharing government with
rival and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
In addition to investigating the role of security forces in
the worsening
violence in the country, the independent commission agreed by
the
negotiators in Cape Town is also expected to come up with
recommendations on
the de-militarisation of state institutions such as
parastatals and other
state-owned enterprises.
The agreement comes
after some top security officials put pressure on Zanu
PF negotiators not to
give in to demands for security sector reforms and to
changes in the
composition of the Zimbabwe Elections Commission (ZEC) -
which is known to
be teeming with secret service officials.
“Yes, we have made a
breakthrough. All the three political parties agreed
that we set up an
independent three-man commission of inquiry to investigate
and compile a
report detailing all forms of violations including violence,
torture of
civilians and abductions by members of the security forces."
“The
commission of inquiry will also look at other violations in the GPA and
issues that were raised but not acted upon."
“It will also look at
the issues of de-militarisation. Jomic will be
involved in the setting up of
the commission,” said a Daily News source.
Zanu PF facilitator, Patrick
Chinamasa could neither deny nor confirm that a
commission was being set up
to probe the role of the military in the
brutalisation of innocent
civilians.
“I know where that information came from. It is the position
of the MDC-T.
We are going to meet to produce the report on our
deliberations. It can’t be
this week because some negotiators are
committed,” he said.
When probed if the South African facilitators would
be coming this week to
monitor progress, Chinamasa expressed
ignorance.
“It’s not correct that facilitators are coming.
“I
can’t stop them from coming to Zimbabwe but if they come, it has nothing
to
do with us,” he said.
Jomic communications manager Joram Nyathi said he
had not heard the
development and referred questions to spokesperson
Priscilla
Misiharabwi-Mushonga who also attended the Cape Town
talks.
“I have not heard about that one. Our co-ordinator is in South
Africa and
was called at the very last minute to some meeting involving the
civic
society on the roadmap (to elections) and I understand on the
instructions
of Lindiwe Zulu,” said Nyathi.
However, our source said
Jomic would appoint either a retired judge or a
person with a strong
judicial background to chair the commission.
The development, which gives
a ray of hope to a possible cessation of a
culture of violence in the
country, comes as soldiers and police continue
their violent and selective
crackdown on civilians.
“This week President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation
team will be coming to
Zimbabwe to conclude the process which will see the
signing of the agreement
of what was agreed on by all the three political
parties during the Cape
Town talks last week,” our source
added.
Ambassador Zulu confirmed to the Daily News that a member of the
facilitation team would arrive in the country this week as a follow-up to
last week’s talks.
“One member of the facilitation team is coming to
Harare this week and not
the entire team.
“It is a follow up to the
agreements that were reached in the Cape Town
meetings on Thursday and
Friday last week. It is a normal follow up to the
negotiation process,” Zulu
said.
The Daily News has been reliably informed that Mac Maharaj, a
former South
African cabinet minister and an ANC veteran and luminary, is
the facilitator
coming to oversee the signing of the Cape Town
agreements.
Both formations of the MDC have accused Zanu PF of stalling
progress in
government by mutilating the GPA, a pact which paved way for the
formation
of an inclusive government.
They also accuse security
forces of being at the forefront of brutalising
and beating up people
perceived to be MDC supporters, amid reports that
military personnel has
been deployed in many parts of the country,
especially in the rural areas.
http://www.businessday.co.za/
Sadc leaders will be under pressure to take
action against Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe over illegal land
grabs
WYNDHAM HARTLEY
Published: 2011/05/10 06:34:02 AM
CAPE TOWN —
President Jacob Zuma and fellow southern African leaders will
again be under
intense pressure to take action against Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe
later this month when they meet to consider a crucial report
on his illegal
land grabs.
In late 2008, the Southern African Development Community
(Sadc) Tribunal
ruled against Mr Mugabe’s government, insisting unanimously
that a group of
79 farmers had been denied access to justice in Zimbabwe and
further ruling
that they had been discriminated against because they were
white. Mr Mugabe
and his then government thumbed their noses at the tribunal
ruling, saying
it had no jurisdiction.
Since then Sadc leaders have
prevaricated on just what to do about the
ruling and Zimbabwe’s refusal to
comply.
Democratic Alliance MP James Selfe had asked Mr Zuma, in a
parliamentary
question, what steps the justice ministers and
attorneys-general of Sadc
states believed should be taken against Mr Mugabe.
Mr Zuma’s reply, tabled
yesterday, said a report by the ministers and
attorneys-general would be
discussed at a Sadc leaders’ summit on May
19-20.
Mr Zuma’s reply also indicates the degree to which Sadc leaders
have dragged
their heels on the issue of tribunal rulings. It also shows
reluctance to
confront Mr Mugabe for his refusal.
Mr Zuma said about
two years after the 2008 ruling that the Sadc heads of
state "mandated the
committee of ministers of justice and attorneys-general
to consider the
legal issues relating to Zimbabwe’s noncompliance with a
ruling by the Sadc
tribunal and also to conduct a review of the roles and
responsibilities of
the Sadc Tribunal with a view to strengthening it and
improving its terms of
reference.
"The summit also adopted the recommendation by the committee
of ministers of
justice and attorneys-general to commission a study which,
in addition to
covering the above matters, would also deal with the
recognition and
enforcement of decisions by the Sadc Tribunal."
This
effectively suspended the operations of the tribunal.
Mr Zuma said that
in October Sadc leaders approved a panel of experts to
conduct the study.
This had now been completed and was considered by the
justice ministers and
attorneys-general last month.
"A report containing recommendations
regarding these matters will be
presented by the committee of ministers of
justice and attorneys-general to
a special Sadc Summit of Heads of State and
Government to be held on May
19-20 in Windhoek ," Mr Zuma said.
DA
parliamentary leader Athol Trollip, commenting on the reply, said: "The
saddest thing of all this is that Sadc has undermined itself by not calling
a member state to account and that Mike Campbell, the farmer who fought so
courageously to win his farm back through the tribunal, has since
died".
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Tonderai Kwenda, Chief Writer
Tuesday, 10 May
2011 17:16
HARARE - A special Sadc summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for
next week in
Windhoek, Namibia may be postponed due to other pressing
regional
commitments, a member of the facilitation team on Zimbabwe has
said.
Lindiwe Zulu, a spokesperson of the Sadc facilitating team on
Zimbabwe said
this at the Southern African Liaison Office (Salo) High Level
Meeting on the
Zimbabwe Roadmap to Elections held in Pretoria,
yesterday.
“The Sadc extra-ordinary Summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for 20
May in Windhoek
is not confirmed yet as there are clashing meetings that may
lead to it
being shifted but Sadc Troika is fully aware of the need to
urgently meet
over Zimbabwe,” said Zulu.
She said that the elections
roadmap currently being negotiated by the
negotiators of the country’s three
political parties shall be presented to
the three principals before Zuma
hands it over to a full Sadc summit.
Zulu also reiterated that Zimbabwe
will not have elections this year saying
efforts will instead be put on
building strong democratic institutions which
can deliver free and fair
elections.
“Categorically and totally, Zimbabwe will not have elections
in 2011 because
there is a lot of work to be done in the area of reforms and
creating a
conducive environment for free and fair elections,” said
Zulu.
“The next Zimbabwe election must be totally different from 2008
elections.”
Asked by the Daily News to clarify on what she meant by the
building of
strong institutions, Zulu said: “In Sadc our wish is that
institutions that
govern elections must be credible, they must be
institutions that can be
trusted so that when they announce election results
they do so in good time
and they can easily be accepted,” said
Zulu.
She gave the example of the South African Independent Electoral
Commission
(IEC) as one such body.
The MDC led by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai wants the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec), to be
revamped by way of flushing out suspected state
security agents from its
employees.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
by Irene Madongo
10 May
2011
The government continues to demand media black outs around important
developments in Zimbabwe, leaving people in the dark about their
future.
Andrew Moyse of the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said
since
Independence the government has selectively used media blackouts to
deliberately withhold information and the advent of new independent
newspapers has not changed this.
“The attitude is ‘what the eye
doesn’t see, the mind doesn’t grieve over,’
as it were, ‘So we’ll just carry
on and do what we know best – we’re in
charge, and we’ll tell you if it has
to happen.
It’s very difficult this – to try to extract information when
ministers and
senior government officials tell us that it’s no business of
ours when we
have journalists who inquire about what is happening in the
country,
especially with the latest developments over SADC,” Moyse
said.
Since the SADC talks began, journalists and the public have not
been
informed by government officials on developments. Very little
information
emerged from the meeting last week and on Tuesday a member of
the SADC
facilitation team on Zimbabwe, Mac Maharaj, arrived in the country,
with
criticism that once again the media and the public were not
informed.
The team on Zimbabwe is made up of Maharaj, Charles Nqakula and
Lindiwe
Zulu. A member of the team told SW Radio Africa that it was unlikely
the
media would be informed about this latest visit as this was just ‘a
follow-up to the talks in Cape Town.’
This is despite the fact that
every step of the meetings is now critical, as
the country heads for a full
SADC summit on Zimbabwe, to be held on 20th
May.
With difficulty
journalists found out that one of the key disagreements at
the latest talks
in Cape Town was over the role of the partisan security
forces, which have
been blamed for unleashing terror on people opposed to
ZANU PF.
It’s
understood that talks with the security chiefs are expected to be held
ahead
of the 20th May summit, but as usual it will be unlikely that
Zimbabweans
will get to know anything about this meeting.
Moyse stressed that
Zimbabweans have a right to be enlightened on national
issues. “It’s about
us, it’s not about a ruling elite. It’s about the people
of Zimbabwe. So we
do have a complete right to know what people are
discussing about us,” he
said.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Editor
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
15:21
HARARE - Government and private sector employers should brace
for paralysing
strikes next month if they continue ignoring calls for higher
salaries and
quick labour law reforms, the country’s largest labour body has
said,
according to The Legal Monitor.
In an interview with The
Legal Monitor, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) president Lovemore
Matombo said consultations were underway between
labour organisations across
the sector to mount strong action against
employers.
Patience among
workers, many who anticipated huge changes after the MDC’s
entry into
government, had worn thin, Matombo said.
Matombo said they had targeted
June because that is when civil servants are
expecting government to
significantly increase salaries. Most trade unions
are also negotiating to
have salaries increased in June.
“What we have said is let’s have a
collective approach to this whole thing.
We are no longer going to see a
civil servants’ strike alone.
“Every labour movement, every trade union
in this country has a problem with
its employer and what we are saying is
let’s galvanise support so that as we
approach June, all of us are geared to
go on a strike but it has to be
collective. We will have to do that. We have
no option,” said Matombo.
He said confrontation was most likely to take
place because government and
most employers were resisting calls to match
salaries to the poverty datum
line that currently stands at just over
$500.
Most workers in the public and private sectors earn between $100
and $300.
“Immediately after the formation of this coalition government,
there was a
feeling that there was no need to go on strike as to do so would
be to
torpedo the efforts of the MDC and MDC was quite aggressive in terms
of
public relations saying we want to see that every worker has a decent
salary.
“But two years down the line, I think people are now aware
that it was just
a mock exercise. And I think we can succeed in our strike
action,” said
Matombo.
He accused the coalition government of
abandoning workers and the poor.
“I can clearly tell you in this country
that 99,9 percent of our ministers
are right-wing elements. They believe in
capital. Pro-poor is purely
political rhetoric,” said Matombo.
He
added: “We have no pro-poor coalition government. In this government most
politicians would want to capture votes from poor people. But they will
never be committed to the poor. For example, the IMF prescription being put
across to the government is capitalist yet it appears to find favour.
According to the IMF, civil servants should be reduced.
“But how can
you reduce civil servants who have been reduced over the years
to the level
of poverty. Only about seven percent of workers are formally
employed in
Zimbabwe and of these, the government employs the bulk."
“So what will it
mean if government agrees to reduce the pay bill by
reducing the number of
its workers?,” asked Matombo.
Associated Press
(AP) – 7 hours ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Teachers in
Zimbabwe are threatening to strike over
their demands for pay and an end to
intimidation by police and security
officials.
Leaders of a major
teachers' labor organization say the lowest-paid teachers
want their $130
monthly earnings at least doubled. The strike threat comes
as schools opened
this week for the new term.
Teachers' union leader Takavafira Zhou said
in a Tuesday statement that
surveillance and harassment of teachers by
police agents "surpasses our
understanding."
Teachers and pupils were
forced to participate in political propaganda by
militants of President
Robert Mugabe's party who also accused them of
sympathizing with the former
opposition in the nation's troubled two-year
coalition.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
10 May
2011
Baton-wielding riot police waged a brutal crackdown Tuesday on
peaceful
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) demonstrators in Bulawayo, with
witnesses
saying dozens of people were injured.
WOZA said thousands
of protesters gathered in central Bulawayo to express
their frustration at
the persistent daily ’18 hour power cuts,’ when riot
police arrived and
began to indiscriminately beat the peaceful activists.
The protest was
aimed at the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and
Distribution Company
(ZETDC) for what WOZA termed was daylight robbery by
the utility
company.
The protesters were demanding that ZETDC should stop cheating
fixed meter
consumers, provide proper timetables of load shedding and
urgently put in
place a proper and transparent billing system. They chanted
slogans, calling
for justice, freedom and urgent social reforms.
Our
correspondent Lionel Saungweme, who witnessed the protest, said the
brutal
attack on the demonstrators was yet another sad paragraph in the
ongoing
state sponsored violence against innocent and unarmed civilians.
‘The
police were acting like dogs. They were so vicious and the ferocity of
the
beatings would have left some people thinking they were beating up
football
rioters and yet they were just merely women,’ Saungweme said.
He added;
‘This brutal attack underlines the need for an urgent security
sector
reforms because the protest did not warrant such a crackdown. It was
a
bloody messy affair where women were being chased and beaten along the
streets.’
A statement issued by WOZA after the crackdown said one of
those injured was
their co-coordinator Jenni Williams. No arrests were made
and WOZA said all
the injured had been assessed and attended to.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
10
May 2011
Conflicting signals emanating from senior ZANU PF officials on
when the next
national elections are going to be held are said to reflect
the serious
infighting and jostling for influence within the
party.
SW Radio Africa understands the faction led by Defence Minister
Emerson
Mnangagwa, composed mainly of the so-called hardliners, is pushing
for an
early election while the perceived ‘moderates’ in the Solomon Mujuru
faction
prefer polls next year or in 2013.
Last week ZANU PF Chief
negotiator in the SADC talks on Zimbabwe, Patrick
Chinamasa, said; “It is my
own opinion that it is not possible to hold
elections this year. We need to
start talking about elections next year or
2013 assuming that the referendum
is completed in September as we have been
advised by COPAC.”
This
week ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo contradicted Chinamasa saying; “The
party position is very clear. I don’t know how many times I should repeat
this. Elections are on this year and reforms are not fundamental if people
want elections. The Mutare congress last year made it clear that elections
will be held this year. The politburo also made it clear and the President
also made it clear.”
Asked to clarify why he was contradicting
Chinamasa, Gumbo said; “Those are
his (Chinamasa’s) statements as an
individual negotiator and that does not
reflect the position of the party.
The MDC-T is afraid of elections saying
there will be violence but it’s
clear it is the most violent party in the
country.”
Not to be outdone
was ZANU PF strategist Jonathan Moyo, who penned a bitter
article claiming;
“It is now clear in the national interest that the next
harmonised general
election must be held this year in 2011, failure of which
it should be held
in 2016 and not at any other time in between.” He
described Chinamasa’s
statement on the election dates as ‘untenable’.
Political analyst
Pedzisai Ruhanya told SW Radio Africa; ‘There are two
competing camps in
ZANU PF. One camp which belongs to Mnangagwa, whose
mouthpiece is Jonathan
Moyo and partly Rugare Gumbo, and the other group
which is the Mujuru
faction. The views by Chinamasa are shared by the Mujuru
faction.”
Ruhanya said the Mnangagwa faction, ‘has deployed people in
the name of
soldiers, CIO’s and the youth militia in the rural areas to do
the
campaigning for ZANU PF. So that group is finding it difficult to
sustain
politically and economically the deployment of these soldiers that
they have
put in the communities since last year.”
Other analysts
have made the argument that the Mujuru faction is made up of
what is loosely
described as moderates, who are more business-oriented and
willing to ‘give
and take’ in negotiations with the two MDC formations, as
long as they can
continue to plunder the country in the name of greed.
http://www.radiovop.com/
10/05/2011 11:07:00
Harare, May 10, 2011 - A
coalition of influential top local pro-democracy
and human rights groups
says it wants to continue independently monitoring
the chaotic constitution
making process which resumed last week.
The Constitution Select Committee
(COPAC) led constitution making process is
at a critical stage, where
thematic committees are analysing and organising
data collected from close
to 5 000 public meetings held countrywide.
After the data analysis the
thematic committees are scheduled to make
recommendations to a team of
drafters, who are supposed to be independent
experts agreed to by the
coalition government.
In a letter to COPAC joint chairpersons namely
Munyaradzi Mangwana of ZANU
(PF), Douglas Mwonzora of the Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai led Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC-T) and Edward
Mkhosi of the smaller faction of
the MDC, the Zimbabwe Independent
Constitution Monitoring Project
(ZZZICOMP), comprising of influential rights
group, Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights, Zimbabwe Election Support Network
and Zimbabwe Peace Project
said they would want to fulfil their mandate of
monitoring the crafting of a
new governance charter for the
country.
“As you are aware, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe
Lawyers for
Human Rights and Zimbabwe Peace Project has been independently
monitoring
the ongoing Article VI constitution-making process under the
banner of
ZZZICOMP, and with assistance and accreditation from COPAC. We
write to
hereby formally advise that ZZZICOMP wishes to continue with its
mandate by
monitoring the work of the Thematic Committees. In this regard,
we would be
grateful if you could consider facilitating our request and
ensuring that
our monitors are permitted to access the 17 thematic
committees' venues. Our
representatives will observe their work and will not
contribute and/ or
interfere in any manner in the work of the Committees.”
The letter was
jointly signed by ZLHR executive director Irene Petras, ZESN
director Rindai
Chipfunde-Vava and ZPP director Jestina
Mukoko.
ZZZICOMP asked for permission to access copies of relevant
documentation on
the methodology of the thematic committees and their terms
of reference.
ZZZICOMP has been monitoring the constitution making
process since it
commenced last year. The tripartite body says monitoring
the government-led
constitution making process will enable the body to
evaluate whether the
exercise was democratic and the outcome a true
reflection of the people’s
wishes.
HRD’s
Alert
10 May 2011
Police
on Tuesday 10 May 2011 arrested a Nyanga villager, Tonderai Nyabasa, for allegedly
committing public violence three months ago, alongside Nyanga North Member of the House of Assembly and
Constitution Select Committee (COPAC) co-chairperson, Hon. Douglas Mwonzora and 23
dwellers.
Nyabasa handed himself to the police, who detained him at Nyanga
Police Station. The police indicated that they took orders from police
detectives at the Law and Order Section at Mutare Central Police Station in
detaining Nyabasa, who is expected to appear in court on Wednesday 11 May
2011.
Lawyers representing Hon. Mwonzora and the Nyanga residents, who were
arrested in February and charged with violating section 36(1)(a) of the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act for public violence filed
an application before Nyanga Magistrate Ignatio Mhene seeking referral of the
matter to the Supreme Court to determine the violation of several of their
constitutional rights.
In
their application, the lawyers, Jeremiah
Bamu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and David Tandiri of Maunga, Maanda and
Associates Legal Practitioners, who is a member of ZLHR argued that their
clients’ rights to liberty, protection of the law and protection from inhuman and
degrading treatment as enshrined in the Constitution were violated when they
were arrested, abducted and detained in filthy police and prison cells in Nyanga
and Mutare respectively.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that detention under conditions
similar to those where Hon. Mwonzora and the other residents were incarcerated
constitutes inhuman and degrading treatment.
The
lawyers want the Supreme Court to determine whether or not the assaults, torture
and denial of medical attention to their clients constitute inhuman and
degrading treatment in violation of Section 15 (1) of the
Constitution.
Bamu
and Tandiri also want the Supreme Court to determine whether or not the raising
of Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act against their clients
denied them their protection of the law and infringed on their right to liberty
in a manner that is not reasonably justified in a democratic society.
Further,
whether or not in raising Section 121 (3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Act (Chapter 9:07), the State acted with
mala fides (bad faith) and thereby contravened Section 18 (1) (a) of the
Constitution.
Magistrate
Mhene will deliver his ruling on the application for referral to the Supreme
Court on 23 May. The Magistrate will also pass a ruling on an application which
the lawyers filed seeking the release of a COPAC vehicle allocated to Hon.
Mwonzora, which the police seized upon his arrest in
February.
Magistrate
Mhene also temporarily suspended the reporting conditions for Hon. Mwonzora
together with four other accused people namely, Munyaradzi
Mwonzora, Sekai Gombe, David Mutare and Richard Hazangwi until
23 May 2011 to
allow them to attend to COPAC business where thematic committees are currently
analysing and organising data collected from public outreach
meetings.
Hon. Mwonzora
and the other accused persons were reporting to the police once a week as part
of their bail conditions since their admission to bail in
March.
ENDS
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
10/05/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
PAUL Siwela’s bid for freedom suffered a new reversal on
Thursday after
Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku requested written
submissions from him
before he can rule in his bail appeal.
Siwela, a
member of the separatist group, Mthwakazi Liberation Front, has
been in jail
since March 3 following his arrest on treason charges, along
with two other
men who are out on bail.
The former ZAPU leader and 2002 presidential
candidate failed in his bail
bid at the High Court after prosecutors argued
that he was facing related
charges in the lower courts, and was given to
repeat offending.
Siwela, who is incarcerated at Khami Prison just
outside Bulawayo, was
represented by his defence team at a hearing in Harare
on Tuesday.
“The Chief Justice has postponed the case to allow Siwela to
file an
affidavit to assure him (Chief Justice) that he will not commit
similar
offences to treason. The matter has been postponed indefinitely and
Siwela
languishes in jail. The affidavit will be filed by Thursday,” said
lawyer
Sindiso Mazibisa, who is part of Siwela’s legal team.
Siwela
was arrested on March 3 and charged with treason after he allegedly
caused
the distribution of flyers agitating for Egyptian-style uprisings
against
President Robert Mugabe’s government. Prosecutors say he, along with
John
Gazi, Charles Thomas and seven other men still at large, was seeking
the
overthrow of a constitutionally-elected government.
All three men deny
the charges and say they are being persecuted for their
radical campaign for
a break-away Matabeleland state.
Meanwhile, two ministers who tried to visit
Siwela on Monday have revealed
that they were turned back by prison
authorities.
State Enterprises minister Gorden Moyo and Water Resources
minister Samuel
Sipepa Nkomo visited Khami Prison with food items for
Siwela, but were
denied an audience by prison authorities.
“We are
government ministers but we have been denied access to Siwela and
that’s
sad,” Nkomo told journalists. “Siwela’s rights are being violated
because
why should prison officers deny us a chance to visit an inmate? That’s
unfair."
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex
Bell
10 May 2011
ZANU PF’s spin doctor, Jonathan Moyo, is once again
causing strain on the
already tense relations between South Africa and
Zimbabwe, after another
written attack on President Jacob Zuma.
Moyo
once used the state media this week to trash Zuma’s ongoing mediation
efforts, stipulated by regional leaders as the key to solving Zimbabwe’s
political crisis. Moyo said these efforts “created a treacherous opportunity
for weakening the state in Zimbabwe by rendering it vulnerable to hostile
foreign interests.”
He accused Zuma and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) of
being puppets of Western states like the UK
and the US, which he accused of
“hostile manipulation.” He also slammed
ongoing negotiations towards a SADC
endorsed election roadmap, as pointless
and a guise for the “destabilisation
of the state.”
“These puppets
and their masters will not be allowed to reform something
they did not form
using the cover of the negotiations under misplaced SADC
facilitation which
the UK government apparently wants to use to dictate
regime change in the
country,” Moyo said.
South Africa has since dismissed Moyo’s latest rant,
which also argued for
fresh elections in Zimbabwe this year. Zuma’s
International Relations
Advisor, Lindiwe Zulu, is quoted as saying that
neither SADC nor South
Africa had time for “people who are outside the
negotiation ambit.”
“We have said it before that we will not comment on
opinions of people who
are not part and parcel of the negotiation process,”
Zulu said.
Zuma has for weeks been the target of ZANU PF’s anger,
following the
surprisingly stern rebuke by the SADC Troika in March, which
cornered Mugabe
over his refusal to fully implement the Global Political
Agreement. The
Troika later issued a statement demanding an immediate end to
violence,
intimidation, hate speech and harassment, and pledged to develop a
roadmap
towards credible elections.
It’s widely understood that it
was a scathing report by Zuma on the state of
Zimbabwe’s political crisis
that spurred SADC to change its tone towards the
situation. Zuma reportedly
had harsh warnings about the political stalemate,
saying that “unprecedented
upheavals,” seen in North Africa recently, would
happen in Zimbabwe if there
weren’t major reforms.
A furious Mugabe then accused SADC of trying to
interfere in Zimbabwe's
internal affairs. He claimed Zuma was just a
facilitator to the dialogue and
“cannot prescribe anything,” while saying
that SADC has no business
‘meddling’ in Zimbabwe’s affairs. The state owned
Sunday Mail newspaper then
took its cue from Mugabe and published an
editorial branding Zuma ‘erratic’
and ‘disaster-prone’ They described him as
a “liability, not only to South
Africa, but also to the rest of the
continent.”
Moyo also followed Mugabe’s lead, writing in an opinion piece
published in
the same paper, that “Zuma is now tainted beyond recovery by
the Libyan
situation”, after his country voted on the UN Security Council in
favour of
imposing a no-fly zone.
ZANU PF was then forced to
backtrack on this criticism, apparently worried
about being isolated in the
region. Moyo was last month summoned by Mugabe’s
deputy Joice Mujuru and
sharply reprimanded for his opinion piece that
blasted Zuma. Mugabe’s
spokesman George Charamba, was also tasked with
making amends, taking out a
full page supplement in the state owned Herald
newspaper, claiming the views
of the Sunday Mail editorial did not reflect
the views of the
government.
Moyo’s fresh attack is now believed to be a sign of ZANU PF’s
growing
concern that SADC will follow through on its apparent change in
stance
towards the Zimbabwe situation, and stop appeasing Mugabe at every
turn.
ZANU PF has never needed to criticise SADC before, because the bloc’s
‘quiet
diplomacy’ towards Zimbabwe has always suited the party very well.
Commentators have said that the comments by Moyo, which will have been
sanctioned by ZANU PF, are indicative that the party is very
worried.
Other commentators meanwhile have questioned if these attempts
to undermine
Zuma could be related to an alleged plot in South Africa to
oust the
President from his position. Billy Masethla, a top official in
South Africa’s
ruling ANC party, last week said the plot is real. He told
the Mail &
Guardian newspaper: “I know who they are talking to and how
they want to do
this. I am not going to keep quiet and watch people
destroying the
organisation.”
Some commentators have said that ZANU
PF might be preempting the results of
this ‘plot’ by cutting ties with Zuma,
while remaining on good terms with
the ANC. The two parties are
traditionally supportive of each other as
former liberation parties, and the
ANC has, on more than one occasion,
voiced support and respect for
Mugabe.
But exiled Zimbabwean journalist Basildon Peta, who is now based
in South
Africa, told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that there is very little
support
for the alleged plot, saying “Zuma is very strong in his position.”
He also
insisted that the ANC would not risk jeopardising its position in
the
Southern African region by throwing in its lot with a party like ZANU
PF,
which is increasingly isolated.
“They wouldn’t want to be
associated with a discredited, anarchistic,
destructive regime that no
longer even has the support of the region,” Peta
said.
Peta meanwhile
welcomed Moyo’s vitriolic attack on Zuma and SADC, saying:
“These sentiments
reflect the whole party and it continues to push them
further out of favour
with SADC. This is what campaigners for real change in
Zimbabwe have wanted
to see for a long time.”
http://www.voanews.com/
De Beers
International Relations Director Andrew Bone said that although De
Beers
held rights to explore the Marange field for just under 10 years, it
was
only active in the zone for two, and decided not to develop it
Sandra
Nyaira | Washington 09 May 2011
Diamond mining giant De Beers has
dismissed as outrageous charges launched
last week by Zimbabwe's minister of
mines saying the firm looted diamonds
from the Marange field for nearly a
decade when it held a concession to
exploit the eastern zone.
Mines
Minister Obert Mpofu and Deputy Mines Minister Gift Chimanikire said
they
were convinced that De Beers plundered the Marange alluvial field
prompting
Harare to set up an expert panel to probe De Beers activity during
the
period of its concession.
Mpofu charged that De Beers extracted large
amounts of rough stones from the
Marange field while telling the government
it was only prospecting with
little success.
Some observers say Mpofu
has launched the charges against De Beers to
deflect accusations that the
Marange field, controlled by the Zimbabwean
military, is currently being
looted by a clique with close ties to his
ZANU-PF party.
De Beers
International Relations Director Andrew Bone told VOA reporter
Sandra Nyaira
in an interview from New York that although the company held
rights in
Marange for just under 10 years, it was only active in the zone
for two and
decided not to continue as it preferred to work deep Kimberlite
deposits
rather than alluvial diamond fields.
Bone added that there is no way
Harare would not have known of such a huge
operation if it had existed,
adding that it would also have been strange for
De Beers to give up its
license in 2006 if it had been extracting as many
stones as Mpofu
charges.
"Prospecting is not mining. Mining requires a great deal of
investment and
the use and import of heavy machinery, and a great deal
logistical support
from road and air," Bone said. "The Zimbabwean
authorities would have been
more than aware of any such activity. The fact
they weren't indicates De
Beers did not carry out any mining."
Bone
added: "In addition, industrial mining of the scale indicated would
have
left behind a great deal of physical evidence, none of which has been
produced."
Bone said De Beers would like to see Zimbabwe comply fully
with the
Kimberley Process as this would allow Zimbabweans to benefit from
this 7rich
natural resource.
"Official diamond exports, authorized by
the Kimberley Process, will allow
the Zimbabwean people to benefit and
realize the full value of this valuable
natural resource and provide access
to the world's markets," Bone said.7
Democracy and Governance Manager Joy
Mabenge of the Institute for Democratic
Alternatives for Zimbabwe said the
absence of transparent monitoring of
mining activity under the previous
ZANU-PF government led to the current
dispute.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Edward Jones Tuesday 10 May
2011
HARARE – The world’s top platinum producers Angloplat and
Implats and
Kazhakistan mining group ENRC have submitted plans to Zimbabwe’s
indigenisation ministry on how they intend to meet a six-month deadline to
dispose majority stakes of their local units to blacks, Saviour Kasukuwere
said yesterday.
Angloplat operates Unki mine in central Zimbabwe,
which started producing
platinum in December while Implats owns the
country’s largest platinum miner
Zimplats near Harare.
Eurasian
Natural Resources Corp (ENRC) owns 60 percent in the Bukai platinum
block
along the great dyke, with the remaining shareholding being owned by
state-run Zimbabwe Mining Development Cooperation.
Kasukuwere, a
minister from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party in
Zimbabwe’s shaky
unit government is spearheading the controversial
empowerment drive which
his coalition partner Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has called looting by
a “greedy elite”.
“Most of the major mines are with us, they are
co-operating. What is left is
for us to evaluate the substance of their
co-operation to see if it meets
our expectations," Kasukuwere said
yesterday.
Although 45 days passed yesterday, Kasukuwere gave the miners
a reprieve
saying "the closing date is not today, because it is 45 days
excluding
public holidays and weekends". This calculation would extend the
deadline to
June 2.
Foreign mining companies then have until Sept. 30
to surrender 51 percent of
their local shares to blacks.
Kasukuwere
was quoted last week saying Harare would not pay any money for
the mining
stakes but would base any payment negotiations on the state's
ownership of
the southern African country's untapped mineral wealth.
“"The companies
are continuing to come in with their plans," he said.
Rio Tinto, which
owns Murowa diamond mine, Mwana Africa, which owns Bindura
Nickel Mine and
Freda Rebecca gold mine and Zimbabwe’s largest gold miner
Metallon Gold
Zimbabwe are some of the companies being targeted by the
empowerment
drive.
Most mines have adopted a wait and see attitude putting expansion
as well as
retooling plans on hold until there is clarity on how the
empowerment plan
will be executed.
Firms that fail to disclose their
share-transfer plans within the stipulated
period face prosecution,
according to the empowerment regulations that have
thrown the lucrative
mining sector into turmoil.
The Chamber of Mines has proposed trimming
the indigenisation quota to a
minimum of 26 percent with the balance of 25
percent made up of credits
arising from corporate social investments such as
roads, schools, dams and
hospitals that most major mining firms have over
the years built for local
communities.
The government has not
indicated it will consider the chamber’s proposals
made nearly a month ago.
-- ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Thulani Munda Tuesday 10 May
2011
HARARE – Zimbabwe has adopted a two-pronged approach to tackling
the country’s
foreign debt that will see the African country use its rich
natural
resources while also embracing the HIPC debt relief initiative to
pay back
the more than US$7 billion owed to foreigners.
The move to
adopt a hybrid solution to the debt crisis comes after more than
a year of
strong disagreements within the Harare unity government over how
to handle a
burgeoning debt that Finance Minister Tendai Biti has said is
the biggest
obstacle to efforts to resuscitate the country’s economy ravaged
by a
decade-long recession.
"The country's high debt overhang of over US$7.1
billion has become the
single largest obstacle to meaningfully attract
foreign capital into the
country," Biti said in his policy document
outlining the state of the
economy since the beginning of the
year.
"The government has approved a hybrid debt resolution strategy
encompassing
the traditional HIPC debt relief initiative and use of the
country's natural
resources endowments.
"The debt management office
is now fully operational and government will be
accelerating the
re-engagement process aimed at resolving the clearance of
Zimbabwe's
external payment arrears," he said.
Countries placed under the enhanced
Heavily Indebted Pour Countries
Initiative or HIPC can qualify for debt
cancellation after a two-year
monitored economic programme.
But ZANU
PF party of President Robert Mugabe had strongly opposed Zimbabwe
applying
for HIPC status saying this would open the country to greater
influence and
control by former colonial power Britain and its Western
allies that the
former sole ruling party says wants to regain control of the
African
nation’s natural resources.
Mugabe and his party instead pushed for
Zimbabwe to use its famous mineral
resources to pay back
creditors.
The MDC parties led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
Industry
Minister Welshman Ncube pushed for Zimbabwe to apply for HIPC
status so it
could qualify for debt support, while the former opposition
parties were
also willing to settle for a hybrid strategy apparently in
order to placate
ZANU PF.
Resource-rich Zimbabwe boasts the world’s
second largest reserves of
platinum, has discovered alluvial diamonds which
experts say could generate
$2 billion a year and has large gold, chrome and
coal deposits.
But a government scheme to force foreign owned mining
firms to sell
controlling stake to local blacks by September has put a
damper on the
lucrative mining sector.
Most foreign-owned mining
firms that operate the largest mines in the
southern African country have
put expansion plans on hold while they wait to
see how the government will
implement the empowerment scheme or responds to
proposals that the companies
have put forward on how they intend to transfer
stake to blacks. --
ZimOnline
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
10 May
2011
Every Tuesday SW Radio Africa will be looking at some of Zimbabwe’s
unsolved
and deliberately ignored cases of political violence, torture,
murder and
other forms of abuse, by people in positions of
authority.
This week we start with the co-Minister of Home Affairs Kembo
Mohadi, who in
1999 was implicated in the murder of Lutheran World
Federation employee
Strover Mutonhori. Up to this date the case seems to
have died a natural
death.
It was reported that Mutonhori worked with
Mohadi’s wife and the two
allegedly had an affair. Mutonhori disappeared
from the Omadu Hotel in Kezi,
only for his remains to be found in Mzingwane
outside Bulawayo. Soon after
the murder, family members were harassed by
suspected state security agents.
In May 2001 a team of police officers
from the Criminal Investigation
Department travelled to South Africa and
interviewed a number of people in
connection with the murder. The matter was
transferred from Matabeleland
South to the Special Investigating Branch at
the Police General Headquarters
in Harare. The officer investigating was
identified as Chief Superintendent
C. R. Gora.
Although police
finally interviewed Mohadi, who was then Deputy Minister of
Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing, he was later promoted
to Home
Affairs Minister in 2002. This effectively put a stop to any chance
of a
proper investigation, since the police fell under his Ministry.
"I did
not appoint myself Minister. The Mutonhori family is free to contact
me or
my lawyers, instead of communicating with me through the Press,”
Mohadi told
journalists.
Mutonhori’s family have kept up the fight for justice. In
January 2007 they
sought the intervention of the Attorney General and the
President's Office
to try and open up investigations into the murder case.
But it was reported
that the docket for the case disappeared and the
evidence tampered with.
Mohadi remains co-Home Affairs Minister and is in
charge of the same police
force that is supposed to be investigating him.
The Mutonhori family
meanwhile say their best chance for justice is either a
cabinet reshuffle or
a new government.
Last year in March Jane Dongo,
a family member, wrote an open letter to
Mohadi saying; “It is now 10 years
since my uncle Strover Mutonhori was
murdered, but we are still waiting for
the Minister of Home Affairs Kembo
Mohadi, to prove that there is rule of
law, justice and that he has not
covered up his own tracks in this murder
case.”
Dongo said she had, “written several letters, one through the
Zimbabwean
embassy in London, and several directly to him in Harare – but no
reply. I
call upon Mr. Mohadi to come clean and be proven innocent in the
courts so
that we can put this case to rest.”
She even quoted remarks
by then Home Affairs Minister Dumiso Dabengwa who in
1999 said “Zimbabwe
will not tolerate a situation where people are kidnapped
and murdered. The
culprit will definitely be brought to book. It has been
brought by a
colleague in our weekly Cabinet meeting and there will not be
any cover
up”.
Sadly, the Mutonhori family still wait for justice.
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
A group of Zanu PF thugs on Sunday razed to the
ground two houses and a granary of the MDC chairperson for Mutasa Central
district, Solomon Mutizawafa. Most of the property and harvested crops were
destroyed in the arson attack.
The arsonists left a note at the scene
which read in part; “Tell (President) Tsvangirai, (Manicaland province
chairperson Julius) Magaramombe and (Mutasa Central MP Trevor) Saruwaka to join
Zanu PF. Their power of the tongue will not stop us to fulfil our plan, we will
continue to demonstrate. If you continue to support the MDC, you will support
it in heaven”.
A report was made at Mutare Central Police Station and
police officers visited Mutizawafa’s homestead where they took statements but no
arrests have been made. Meanwhile, Machete Magen’a, the MDC Youth Assembly
chairperson for Mutare West district in Manicaland province was arrested on
Monday on spurious charges of holding an illegal meeting two weeks ago. However,
the charges are false as the date the meeting is said to have taken place;
Magen’a was in Bulawayo for the MDC 3rd National Congress. He is detained at
Mutare Rural Police Station.
In Harare, the trial of Hon. Elton Mangoma,
the MDC Deputy Treasurer – General and Energy and Power Development Minister
will resume next Monday, May 16 at the High Court.
Hon. Mangoma is facing
trumped up charges of corruption and abuse of public office. He was arrested
early this year and spent two weeks in remand prison.
Today, the court
case of Hon. Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC national spokesperson, Nyanga North MP
and Copac chairperson and 30 other MDC activists was postponed to 23 May at the
Nyanga Magistrate’s Court. Hon. Mwonzora and the activists are facing trumped –
up political violence charges. Hon. Mwonzora was excused from reporting to the
police once a week as part of his bail conditions as he is attending to urgent
business of uploading data at Copac.
For more on these and other issues,
visit www.realchangetimes.com
United,
winning – the people’s covenant to real change.
--
MDC
Information & Publicity Department
May 10th, 2011
Via Youth Forum Press Release: The positive and wholesale participation of the country’s youth will be pivotal if the next election in Zimbabwe is to be credible, free and fair. In the past the youths’ energy has been diverted towards negative contribution to the electoral process and they have become infamous and synonymous with the violence that has characterized previous elections in Zimbabwe.
The Youth Forum notes and contends that youth participation in previous elections has been dismally low and highly negative. According to a study commissioned by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) in April 2010, only 18% of the current voters’ roll can be classified as youth (18 – 30 years). This figure is quite shocking considering that Zimbabwe is generally regarded as a youthful population with over 60% of the country under the age of 35 years.
Contrary to the above figures which point towards an apathetic youth towards civic and political processes, young people have actually been a crucial factor in many elections that have occurred in the past. Due to the endemic shrinking of space for political participation by an elderly ruling elite, bend on perpetuating their stay in power, the energy and eagerness of young people to participate in the electoral process has been systematically channeled towards peripheral roles. It is common knowledge that previous elections in Zimbabwe has seen them competing with their mothers as praise-singers of elderly politicians at political rallies during electoral campaigning periods. Nefarious politicians have gone on to drug these youth and coercing them to perpetrate gruesome acts of violence against real and perceived antagonists and rivals of these politicians. Youth militias and vigilante groups have become synonymous with elections, and this trend was quite evident in the run-up to the sham June 27 2008 presidential run-off election, whose result we all know later culminated in the animal we call the inclusive government today.
The Youth Forum avers that for as long as the energy of young people is diverted towards such peripheral and negative roles in the electoral process, we will continue to have discredited elections in Zimbabwe. We continue to emphasize the need to have meaningful participation of young people in the electoral process as a precursor to building a robust citizen response and participation in the governance process – in allowing the citizens to have the final say on who governs them through regular, free and fair elections. Given their demographic dominance, it is through the participation of young people in the elections that Zimbabwe can truly realize democracy and a government that is truly representative of the majority. As Youth Forum, we call upon all stakeholders to prioritize ensuring that the youth are empowered to take a leading role in deciding who governs them from time to time. The Youth Forum has already taken a lead in launching the ‘Youth Go Register to Vote Campaign’ which seeks to have at least one million youth having registered as voters by the time the next election is held in Zimbabwe. We urge the government of Zimbabwe to be sensitive to the plight of many young Zimbabweans who are being frustrated in their quest to register as voters. We further demand that:
The Youth Forum will not tire in its quest to see a democratic Zimbabwe where youth play an important role in safeguarding democracy.
Youth Register to Vote Today – It’s Your Right Anyway!
By Clifford Chitupa
Mashiri, 10/05/11
Jonathan Moyo’s article ‘Elections now, or not before
2016’, New Zimbabwe,
10/05/11, exposes serious underlying fear and
desperation. Although,
‘disowned’ by his own party recently before he could
raise it from its
‘Lazarus moment’, Moyo’s opinion piece provides a glimpse
of the regime’s
real and imaginary fears.
Incredibly, the political
scientist chose to bury his head in the sand like
an ostrich by disregarding
the importance of full public consultation on
elections in line with true
democracy, good governance, transparency and
accountability before calling
for ‘elections now or before 2016’. Only a
pizza can be delivered to order
at record time like that, not combined
parliamentary and presidential
polls.
Presumably, in order to regain the sympathies of the former ruling
party
which seems undecided on his fate, Jonathan Moyo used a familiar
strategy of
Western-bashing or Manufactured External Enemy Syndrome by
claiming an
illegal regime change agenda being at play without giving
evidence. The
article exposes a lot of frustration, impatience and panicking
after the
flop of the 2- million anti sanctions campaign.
Moyo had
the cheek to say: “SADC needs Zimbabwe under Zanu PF than Zimbabwe
under
Zanu PF needs SADC. That is food for thought which is neither a threat
nor a
promise to anyone.” Of course, Zanu-pf needs SADC more than vice
versa.
Without SADC, Zanu-pf would be history by now. Critics argue
that the
regional body is complicit in the miscarriage of justice prevailing
in
Zimbabwe. Most significant is the regional body’s succumbing to Robert
Mugabe’s pressure to suspend the SADC Tribunal because the learned judges
had decided in favour of white commercial farmers following the chaotic
Zanu-pf land reform programme.
If SADC meant serious business all of
Robert Mugabe’s 3 or 4 land audits
would have been tabled in Parliament and
corrective measures taken by the
coalition government. Consequently, donors
and investors would have poured
into the country as a result of a
transparent land reform programme.
The stalemate in the implementation of
the GPA is clear evidence of SADC’s
failure to assert its authority on a
document that it guaranteed. Had the
regional leaders put pressure on the
regime, Zimbabwe would have prosecuted
and convicted hundreds if not
thousands of murderers and criminals who are
enjoying the Supreme Leader’s
blanket amnesty? If SADC decided to read the
riot act to Zanu-pf, few of the
estimated 3-4 million people would be still
in the Diaspora.
Various
commissions would be operational and discharging their services by
now, if
SADC stopped to appease the Zanu-pf leader. For example, the Human
Rights
Commission would be in office and having disposed of massive
workloads from
public submissions by now. There would have been a Truth and
Reconciliation
Commission and national healing if SADC wanted. Similarly,
the Anti
Corruption Commission would have investigated and recommended any
well-connected people for prosecution by now.
There would be genuine
freedom of expression. There would be as many as 12
radio and television
broadcasting stations in the same way newspapers and
magazines have been
licensed to date. There would not be still talk of the
so-called pirate
radio stations as they would most probably have set up
stations in
Zimbabwe.
If the regional bloc had any teeth or wanted to bite, there
would have been
security sector reforms assuring everyone of their safety
and security and
of participating in internationally supervised free and
fair elections. Some
of the army generals would have been retired if SADC
was concerned about a
level playing field in Zimbabwe. All the GPA
outstanding issues would have
been implemented by now with provincial
governors of all political parties
appointed and sworn into office thereby
improving investor confidence.
An example of how SADC has its priorities
up-side down is its persistence in
having targeted sanctions on Robert
Mugabe and his inner circle lifted
before a suitable roadmap is adopted,
before security sector reforms are
implemented, before a new constitution is
concluded, before a referendum is
held, before reforming the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission, before the
voluntary safe return of millions of
exiles, before internationally
supervised elections are held and the list
goes on.
Crisis-ridden Zimbabwe remains a practical example of SADC’s
failure. Unless
the forthcoming SADC summit on 19-20 May 2011 changes its
tempo, the GPA
will go down in living memory as one of the region’s
political nightmares.
Meanwhile, contrary to Jonathan Moyo’s claim, it is
Zanu-pf that needs SADC
more than vice versa.
Clifford Chitupa
Mashiri, Political Analyst, zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
George Fleming House (formerly S.A.C.S. House) proudly celebrates its Centenary on Friday, 27th May 2011. This is an exciting year and provides an opportunity to reflect on 100 years of service to the community. The Centenary celebrations commence with a formal evening on Friday 27th May 2011, followed by an Open Day on Saturday 28th May. Management and residents will be available to provide information to prospective residents, donors and friends of George Fleming House. Past residents are also very welcome to visit.
Today George Fleming House supports the younger female community in Zimbabwe by providing high quality affordable accommodation for young professional ladies or students in Harare. The residents are expected to maintain exemplary behaviour and respect for each other as they have the opportunity to live in such a pleasant, safe environment whilst they study, or develop their careers, and go on to be supportive in their own communities.
The history of George Fleming House dates back to the era when Rhodesia was still taking shape from a vast expanse of wilderness. During the early days and as the economy grew young ladies started to settle in the country to work and live. Most women had no family in Rhodesia, were single and did not have accommodation. In 1911 an intended visit by the Prince of Wales failed due to the death of his father, King Edward VII. The building that had been constructed to accommodate his staff was donated to the South Africa Colonisation Society of London (SACS). A plan took shape to accommodate young ladies aged 18 to 26 years who had come to Rhodesia to work. It was at this point that SACS House, subsequently to be renamed George Fleming House, was born.
After the breakup of the Federation in 1965 the government grants were withdrawn and the Society found it impossible to continue. To maintain the good work in providing accommodation for young women, the George Fleming Trust was established and the House was renamed in recognition of George Fleming OBE who served as Chairman for 50 years until his death in 1962. Major Richard Fleming MBE (son of George Fleming) was appointed Chairman of the House Committee in February 1962 and served in this position until June 1997.
Trish McKenzie currently manages George Fleming House. The Committee and Board of Trustees consist entirely of volunteers. Chairman of the Committee is Rupert Wilkinson; Treasurer Des Lawler CA (Z); Anna Fleming (granddaughter of George Fleming); Jenni Westlake; Gary Jenkins and Mike Whiley. Gary and Mike, along with John Meyburgh, also represent the Board of Trustees. Together, they all aim to ensure the residents – up to 82 can be accommodated – continue to enjoy many distinct advantages of the House which include laundry facilities, furnished single and double rooms, a well-maintained swimming pool and a lounge with television where residents can relax after a busy day. All, in addition, to the two meals served daily in the dining room.
George Fleming House is a registered welfare and non-profit making organisation and relies upon the generous support of Donors for repairs and maintenance. Without the support of Donors and Volunteers, George Fleming House would not be able to fund the upkeep of the facility and offer such affordable accommodation to residents. In addition to the volunteers, the Beit Trust and The Wakeford Trust have been extremely supportive over many years.
Gestures of support are extremely welcome and the Trustees and Committee stand ready to assist and support Donors that may be willing to help with ongoing maintenance and refurbishment of the House.
For further information please contact Trish McKenzie on + 263 4 764 358 or visit our website which is kindly sponsored by zimbiz.net - http://www.georgefleminghouse.co.zw/
Nearly three years on from the signing of The Global Political Agreement (GPA), this Discussion Paper considers the options available to the key actors in Zimbabwe, internal and external, to rescue the current political impasse and avoid a repeat of the bloodshed and economic devastation of the 2000s. The Paper argues that the ‘traditional' strategy followed by SADC and the AU, as embodied in the GPA, is no longer viable. Instead the Paper proposes a way forward that does not rely solely on external intervention nor places undue expectation on the MDC, whose performance in the Government of National Unity has fallen well short on a number of levels.
9 May 2011, was the deadline for foreign-owned mining companies in Zimbabwe to submit plans to the government on how they plan to complete the indigenisation process, which specifies that majority-ownership of these firms must be surrendered to Zimbabweans. The potential consequences for foreign investment and business confidence in Zimbabwe are enormous. Worryingly, the differences between the opposition MDC and President Mugabe's ZANU-PF party over indigenisation, as well as other key policy areas, appear to have narrowed.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town last week, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai voiced his support for indigenisation.
‘Indigenisation is not about appropriation or nationalisation ... it's about setting fair value,' he said. ‘Across the political divide', Tsvangirai added, ‘we agree on the principle of citizenship empowerment... we have been consistent in the area of indigenisation.'
This Paper calls for a renewed commitment by the opposition in Zimbabwe to reject the policies of patronage and plunder that have become entrenched under President Mugabe and instead build a credible and democratic alternative to ZANU-PF. Even then, putting Zimbabwe onto a sustainable recovery path will also require more international pressure for reform and stronger regional leadership by South Africa.
Read the full The Brenthurst Foundation discussion paper here
BILL WATCH
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE SERIES
Parliamentary Committee Meetings Indefinitely
Postponed
All
meetings
of House of
Assembly portfolio committees and
Senate thematic committees have
been postponed indefinitely.
The
purpose of this postponement is to avoid interrupting the current stage of the
constitution-making process, which commenced last week when the Parliamentary
Select Committee on the new Constitution [COPAC] launched the sittings of its
own seventeen thematic committees.
Many
Senators and members of the House of Assembly are members of the
COPAC thematic committees, which will be working full-time for the next two
weeks at least, to prepare their reports on the results of the COPAC outreach
exercise.
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take legal responsibility for information supplied.