http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Nqobizitha Khumalo
Saturday 23 May 2009
BULAWAYO - More than 20 000 teachers
left Zimbabwe over the past two years
alone, disgruntled by poor salaries
and working conditions, Education
Minister David Coltart said on
Friday.
Coltart, who has worked hard to try to revive Zimbabwe's once
envied public
education sector, also lamented dilapidated infrastructure at
most public
schools after years of under funding and
neglect.
"Zimbabwe has over the last two years staring in 2007 lost over
20 000
teachers who left due to poor salaries and working conditions and the
government is working to rectify that problem as we want to return
Zimbabwe's
education status to the level of the 90s," Coltart said,
addressing school
heads and senior education officials in the country's
second largest city of
Bulawayo.
Coltart urged the private sector to
step in and help the government repair
schools, saying that the
revitalisation of education should be the concern
of every
citizen.
"The infrastructure at schools is collapsing and the restoration
of our
education to where it was should be a concern of every Zimbabwean and
the
private sector must join government in giving every member of society a
chance to get education," he said.
Coltart said last year's senior
school public examinations whose results
have been delayed because of a
shortage of funds were being processed and
would be out soon.
Since
taking over as minister, Coltart has managed to reach agreement and
create a
working relation over salaries with the Zimbabwe Teachers
Association
(ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).
The
collapse of the education sector along with that of the public health
system
reflects the decayed state of Zimbabwe's key infrastructure and
institutions
after a decade of acute recession.
A unity government formed last
February by President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has
promised to revive the economy and to restore
health, education and other
basic services.
But the administration's failure to mobilise substantial
financial support
from rich Western countries could hinder its national
reconstruction
programme. - ZimOnline
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16833
May 23, 2009
By Mxolisi
Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - The first bus-load of South African-based Zimbabwean
professionals will be repatriated Wednesday, a humanitarian organization has
revealed.
The Southern African Women for Immigration Affairs
(SAWIMA), which is
co-coordinating the repatriation of the professional,
told The Zimbabwe
Times Saturday morning that the International Organisation
for Migration
(IOM) had finally pulled together enough resources and
finished vetting the
professionals, most of them teachers who have been
living at Johannesburg's
Central Methodist Church.
"The IOM has
informed us that the first bus carrying the professionals will
leave
Johannesburg on Wednesday morning," said Pastor Tobias Chatindo, the
humanitarian officer for SAWIMA.
"The teachers should have left last
week but some of them wanted to wind up
their businesses here in South
Africa, where they had been doing some casual
jobs."
The IOM's
Project Development Officer for Johannesburg - Yukiko Kamashiro,
also
confirmed that the professionals would leave next week.
"We are done with
the first group and they will definitely leave on
Wednesday, while we wait
for SAWIMA to come up with another group for
vetting," she
said.
About 300 desperate Zimbabwean professionals, some of whom have
lived in
Johannesburg, but failed to find employment for the past three
years,
approached SAWIMA two months ago seeking repatriation
assistance.
Education Minister, David Coltart has already pledged that
the teachers will
be employed in their old jobs on arrival.
Kamashiro
said that after repatriating the professionals, IOM would begin to
assist
any ordinary refugees who would come forward asking for repatriation
assistance.
"Our main thrust is to assist in repatriating vulnerable
people who come to
us asking for help and we will do that for those
Zimbabweans who are eager
but do not have the resources to go back
home."
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent
Saturday 23 May 2009
HARARE - Air Zimbabwe's
foreign debt has soared to US$28 million and
the company is contemplating
retrenching some of its staff because it is
failing to service its huge
salary bill, a top official at the airline has
said.
"We owe
our international partners close to US$28 million in unpaid
debts
accumulated through servicing their routes," Air Zimbabwe chief
executive
officer Peter Chikumba told the Parliamentary Committee on
Transport and
Infrastructure.
The US$28 million debt excludes the US$50 million
Zimbabwe's national
airline owes suppliers of Chinese made MA60 it acquired
in 2005.
Air Zimbabwe management planned to send workers on unpaid
leave from
May 1 to cut costs lawyers for the workers moved in to block the
move.
Insiders at the airline this week said morale is low due to
uncertainty on the mooted forced leave.
"As per the original
plan, the chief executive officer Dr Peter
Chikumba drew up a list of people
to be affected and forwarded it to the
human resources department to write
letters," said the source.
"Letters where to be handed over on
Thursday 30 April at the main
entrance gate but workers got wind of the plan
and hired lawyers."
A shortage of foreign currency to buy spares
for repairs, years of
under-funding, mismanagement and downright corruption
have crippled Air
Zimbabwe, which was at one time one of Africa's premier
airlines.
Starved of cash for re-equipment, Air Zimbabwe uses
mostly obsolete
technology and equipment while nearly all its long haul
planes are between
18 and 22 years old. - ZimOnline
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Saturday,
May 23, 2009
Herald
Reporter
CIVIL servants in Harare took to the streets yesterday,
demanding to be paid
"real salaries", warning Government they would embark
on industrial action
if their grievances are not addressed
promptly.
Riot police had to be deployed to stop the placard-waving
disgruntled
workers from marching to the offices of the ministries of Public
Service and
Social Welfare.
The civil servants had gathered at the
Public Service Association
headquarters in the morning and were en route to
the offices of Minister of
Labour and Social Welfare Paurina Mpariwa and
Minister of Public Service
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro to air their grievances
when police stopped them.
Both ministers are MDC-T secondments to
Cabinet.
Read some of the placards: "We are working for salaries and not
allowances",
"US$100 is not enough" and "Bills are more than our
allowances".
Riot police advised them to open dialogue with the relevant
ministries,
after which one officer accompanied the PSA leadership to
Minister
Mukono-weshuro's office.
However, they did not have the
meeting they desired as the minister was said
to be out of office.
In
an interview later, PSA executive secretary Mr Emmanuel Tichareva said
civil
servants were not satisfied with the allowances they were getting.
"We
would like to meet the minister as soon as possible because what is
happening on the ground is not conducive. Civil servants are agitated and
will down tools if they do not see anything meaningful coming next week. We
are going to take action," he said.
The disgruntled civil servants
feel that they are being sidelined in
negotiation
processes.
"Education Minister Mr David Coltart has been talking to
teachers and
promising them packages. Nurses have been promised packages. We
also want to
meet our minister and have dialogue," Mr Tichareva
said.
The association said it would consult its members after yesterday's
demonstration flopped.
The PSA issued Government with a 14-day
ultimatum, which expires on June 8,
to address its members' grievances.
Efforts to get a comment from Ministers
Mpariwa and Mukonoweshuro were
fruitless yesterday.
Affiliate members of the PSA who wanted to
demonstrate yesterday comprised
the Government Workers' Association, Civil
Service Employees' Association,
Professional and Technical Officers'
Association, Government Officers'
Association, and Administrative and
Executive Officers' Association.
Civil servants who spoke to The Herald
expressed displeasure at the slow
pace which the inclusive Government was
addressing their working conditions.
"We have been getting these
allowances for too many months now. All we keep
getting are promises from
the inclusive Government that they are addressing
our plight, but we are not
seeing the progress," one of the workers, who
spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of victimisation, said.
Another said: "The allowances
we are getting are not even from the inclusive
Government. That means the
inclusive Government has not yet done anything to
address our working
conditions even though it was formed way back in
February."
The
US$100 that is being paid to civil servants was awarded by then Acting
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa before the formation of the inclusive
Government comprising Zanu-PF, MDC-T and the MDC.
Since then, a
number of Government officials, including Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai
and Finance Minister Tendai Biti, have implored workers to
be patient with
them as they work to improve working conditions.
http://www.mg.co.za
JASON MOYO - May 23 2009 06:00
Zimbabwe's central
bank has become the key battleground in the fight for
control of the unity
government, with tensions rising over a Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
move to approach the Southern African Development
Community to end disputes
still dogging the coalition.
The extent of a long-running row between
central bank governor Gideon Gono
and finance minister Tendai Biti is
revealed in a confidential letter Gono
wrote to Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai pleading for "protection" and
accusing Biti of
money-laundering.
The Mail & Guardian has seen a voluminous dossier
that Gono has handed to
Tsvangirai claiming to show that Biti's law firm,
Honey & Blanckenberg,
siphoned over a $1-million to an offshore bank
account.
On Thursday Biti dismissed the claim as "rubbish", saying if
there was
anything to them, due process would have taken its course. By
making the
allegations Gono was trying to divert attention from his
failures, Biti
said.
Gono's future is one of the most bitterly
disputed issues in the government.
President Robert Mugabe reappointed him
against the wishes of his coalition
partners, who blame him for Zimbabwe's
hyperinflation.
As it reached 100 days this week, the unity government
appeared at its
weakest, with the lack of movement on agreed political
reforms prompting the
MDC to refer outstanding issues to the SADC and the
African Union at the
weekend. Zanu-PF chief negotiator Nicholas Goche
rejected the bid, saying
deadlock has not yet been declared.
The
dispute partly revolves around the battle for control of aid. About
$1-billion in credit lines has been secured from foreign banks, but none of
this has been channelled through the central bank, controlled by Gono,
Mugabe's ally.
This has heightened tensions amid growing impatience
over lack of progress
on numerous outstanding issues.
In his angry
15-page letter to Tsvangirai, Gono demands "immunity" from what
he sees as
personal attacks by Biti. "On several occasions, the
distinguished minister
has accused me of killing this economy through
printing money," Gono says.
Had he not printed money, he argues "this
country could have easily
degenerated into unprecedented chaos".
Gono accuses Biti of trying to
intimidate him into ending the probe into his
law firm and asks Tsvangirai
for "immunity at law against victimisation by
ministers, some of who may
have been involved in nefarious activities
before".
Gono gives
himself credit for the economic reforms of the past 100 days,
criticising
Biti for claiming the glory. According to Gono, "99%" of Biti's
measures
have been borrowed from the Reserve Bank. His relationship with
Biti is that
of "pursuer and the pursued", he says.
At a meeting last weekend, the
MDC's national council listed among its
grievances continued farm invasions;
Mugabe's refusal to swear in Roy
Bennett, Tsvangirai's nominee for deputy
agriculture minister; the failure
to form the National Security Council, a
committee of top security and
government officials of which Tsvangirai is a
member; the detentions of
activists and journalists, and continued state
media bias.
Although the new government has brought some economic
stability, there has
been little political movement. Civic groups celebrated
this week after
police allowed marches by radical women's activist group
Woza and lawyers to
proceed without beatings or arrests.
The MDC
fears that Zimbabwe will head into new elections without real
reform. At the
MDC meeting, hopes were expressed that South Africa's new
government will
take a tougher line. But a senior party official told the
M&G he felt
his party was expecting too much of Jacob Zuma.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16829
Chebundo
case - Kwekwe Mayor now arrested
May 23, 2009
By Raymond
Maingire
HARARE - The arrest on rape charges of Kwekwe Central legislator
Blessing
Chebundo last Wednesday has prompted speculation within the MDC of
political interference in the ongoing prosecution of MDC politicians
following Friday's arrest of the MP's lawyer together with Kwekwe Mayor
Shadreck Tobaiwa.
Tobaiwa, who is the uncle of Chebundo, and the
arrested MP's lawyer, Tapera
Sengweni, now both stand accused of trying to
defeat the course of justice
in the MP's dramatic rape case.
They
were both arrested by Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
operatives
Friday afternoon and are now detained at Kwekwe Central police
station,
220km southwest of Harare.
Meanwhile, Kwekwe magistrate Oliver
Madzongachiso remanded Chebundo in
custody on Friday to June 4,
2009.
Chebundo, a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator for the
past
nine years, stands accused of raping a 13-year-old minor. He denies the
charge of raping the girl who is now pregnant.
A source told The
Zimbabwe Times Saturday that Tobaiwa and Sengweni were
seized by state
agents after they visited the complainant's parents,
ostensibly to negotiate
an out of court settlement.
Contrary to police claims that Chebundo's
accuser was a stranger he offered
a lift on the day of the alleged crime, it
has now emerged that the girl's
family was a beneficiary of a benevolent
scheme run by the legislator that
pays school fees for less privileged
children in his constituency.
It has further been established Chebundo
had become friends with his accuser's
family, having been sponsoring the
latter's sister who is now studying at
the University of
Zimbabwe.
"When Chebundo was arrested," a family source said, "We thought
the alleged
incident involved the girl's sister.
"On that note, his
lawyer and Councilor Tobaiwa approached the family to
establish the details
and possibly secure an out-of-court settlement."
Initial reports on the
case indicated that the minor had been advised by an
unnamed sister to
report the rape to the police. It is not clear when the
alleged rape, which
occurred in January, was in fact reported to the police.
In normal
circumstances the police would have arrested the Member of
Parliament soon
after receiving the report of rape.
The source said when it turned out
that the allegedly raped girl was the
minor, who by law is presumed
incapable of engaging in sex through consent,
the lawyer had advised
Chebundo's family to withdraw the approach to the
family and instead pursues
the legal course.
But as they left the premises CIO agents who had been
observing their
movements immediately arrested Tobaiwa and
Sengweni.
Mbizo legislator and Midlands North spokesperson for the MDC,
Settlement
Chikwinya confirmed the arrest of the two.
"They were
arrested late yesterday (Friday) afternoon," he said.
"I visited them at
Kwekwe Central Police Station this morning and they are
both in good
spirits."
Chikwinya is also a close friend of Chebundo, who is an MDC
national
executive member.
He said, "While I cannot vouch for
Chebundo, what I can tell you is that the
matter has now clearly become
political. There is now a heavy Harare
influence that seeks to ensure his
political career is destroyed
completely."
There is growing
speculation within the MDC that Chebundo's arrest is part
of a plot by the
CIO to reduce the MDC's narrow majority in Parliament.
http://www.radiovop.com
CHIPINGE, May 23 2009 - A Chipinge Magistrate on Friday
granted bail
to Chipinge East Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Member of
Parliament
Honourable Mathias Mlambo, who was convicted for obstructing the
course of
justice and inciting violence at a funeral of an MDC
member.
Magistrate Samuel Zuze delivered the ruling on
Friday 22 May after
defence lawyers applied for bail pending appeal arguing
that the legislator's
appeal to the High Court on both conviction and
sentence had prospects of
success.
The Magistrate ordered
Honourable Mlambo to deposit USd 200 in bail
money and to surrender his
passport.
Honourable Mlambo was convicted and sentenced to ten
months in jail
with hard labour on Monday 11 May 2009 by a Chipinge
Magistrate after he was
found guilty of obstructing a police officer during
the discharge of his
duties.
The Chipinge East legislator
was arrested on 11 April 2009 at the
funeral wake of one of the MDC member
in Chipinge, Manicaland, where some
members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police
(ZRP) raided the funeral in search
of an unidentified
"suspect".
The police accused Honourable Mlambo of inciting
some MDC youth
members during his address and who became hostile during the
funeral. The
police also alleged that the hostility exhibited by the MDC
youths threw a
monkey wrench in the works as they failed to execute their
duties, ie
arresting their unidentified "suspect".
http://www.ipsnews.net
By Michael Deibert
PARIS, May 23 (IPS) -
Amid allegations of human rights abuses and government
corruption,
international calls are growing to ban or restrict the trade in
diamonds
from politically unstable Zimbabwe.
Concern has focused on the eastern
province of Manicaland, home to the vast
Marange diamond fields in the
district of Chiadzwa.
In early April, the World Federation of Diamond
Bourses (WFDB), which seeks
to organise world diamond exchanges under a
common set of trading practices,
announced that it was advising its 28
affiliated trading houses to ''take
all measures necessary to ensure that
they do not trade, directly or
indirectly, in diamonds originating from the
Marange deposit in Zimbabwe''.
''We want to insure, because we represent
accountability, integrity and
transparency, that we take all measures to
ensure our members can conduct
business in the most responsible way
possible,'' Michael H Vaughan, WFBD's
Executive Director, told IPS about the
decision.
The WFDB's move comes on the heels of a report by Partnership
Africa Canada
(PAC), an Ottawa-based group that advocates on foreign policy
issues, that
was highly critical of the government of President Robert
Mugabe in its
governance of the Zimbabwe's diamond reserves.
The
March 2009 report, ''Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the Wrong Side of History'',
concluded that the country was ''no longer able to manage its diamond
industry in a way that is consistent with respect for human
rights''.
The South Africa-originated De Beers diamond company previously
held
prospecting rights over the Marange fields from the early 1980s until
2006,
at which point exploration rights were assumed by African Consolidated
Resources, a British-registered company.
That year, Zimbabwean
authorities seized control of the mines and evicted
all company personnel
from the site, a situation that remains until today
despite African
Consolidated Resources having won a court case in Zimbabwe
to regain control
of the mines.
With informal mining having becoming widespread at the site
since 2006
Mugabe's cousin, Air Marshal Perence Shiri, led a military
incursion into
Marange in October 2008 to reassert government control, an
assault that
reportedly killed scores of people .
The diamond fields
are now said to bear all the hallmarks of a military
garrison, with mining
conducted by soldiers and local villagers forced to
mine on the army's
behalf.
Before the assault on Marange, Shiri was perhaps best known as
commander of
Zimbabwe's now-defunct North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade
which, between
1983 and 1984, pursued a scorched-earth campaign throughout
the region of
Matabeleland.
At the time, the region was a centre of
support for the Zimbabwe African
People's Union political party, a chief
rival of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Union (known by the acronym
ZANU-PF).
A 1997 report by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace
in Zimbabwe
concluded that it was ''indisputable that thousands of unarmed
civilians
died, were beaten, or suffered loss of property'' during the
attacks in the
mid-1980s in what became known as the
Gukurahundi.
Shiri has been banned from entering the European Union since
2002.
Regarding Marange, Annie Dunnebacke, a campaigner with Global
Witness says
that ''the reports that have been coming out have been very
concerning,
including the use of quite widespread violence on the part of
the
authorities. We are very concerned about what's been going on.''
London-based Global Witness seeks to demonstrate how natural resources are
used to fund conflict.
The PAC and Global Witness have called on the
Kimberley Process -- the three
part certification scheme designed to ensure
that diamonds are accompanied
by a certificate proving origin -- to expel
Zimbabwe from its diamond
certification scheme.
Though a Kimberley
Process review team flew over the Marange area in May
2007 and concluded
that little mining was taking place at the site, the body's
relative
inactivity with regards to Zimbabwe has attracted substantial
criticism in
recent months.
''The Kimberley Process has consistently stumbled over the
last three or
four years when it came to controversial issues,'' argues Ian
Smillie, the
PAC's Kimberley Process expert. ''(They) seem unwilling to
confront any kind
of controversy, and would rather pretend that everything
is okay until it
turns into a major media event.''
Critics have also
charged that Bernhard Esau, the Namibian deputy minister
of mines who
currently serves as chairperson of the Kimberley Process'
rotating
secretariat, met only with government officials during a
fact-finding
mission to Zimbabwe in March 2009 and made no attempt to speak
with anyone
in the country who could reasonably be expected to have an
independent view
of mining conditions there.
Esau cancelled a scheduled interview with IPS
on the subject of Zimbabwe
but, in a public statement following the Zimbabwe
trip, wrote that ''if
Zimbabwe is suspended (from the Kimberley Process)...
it will only help
exacerbate the problems in Zimbabwe continue (sic) and
these diamonds would
keep penetrating (sic) the legitimate
trade.''
In addition to the allegations of violence at Marange, the
question of the
governance of Zimbabwe's diamond reserves has also come to
the fore in
debates about the country's future in the Kimberley
Process.
By Zimbabwe's own mining and export statistics, the country
should currently
posses a diamond stockpile of 1.33 million carats (at a
value of
approximately 150 million dollars), a number that would be even
higher if
2008 figures are factored into the equation. Many have questioned,
given
Zimbabwe's economic downward spiral, whether this reserve still in
fact
exists.
In addition, the last three ministers of mines in the
country - Amos Midzi
(2004-2009), Sydney Sekeramayi (January 2009-February
2009) and Obert Mpofu
(February 2009-present) - have all been present on
travel ban lists compiled
by the United States and European Union for what
the latter charges as being
''actively engaged in violence or human rights
infringements'' in the
country.
With such a murky picture of the
country's diamond production there is a
fear the smuggling has become
widespread.
In September 2008, two Lebanese nationals were arrested in
the Indian state
of Gujarat (the centre of India's diamond industry) with
800,000 dollars
worth of rough diamonds lacking valid documentation. The men
stated they had
obtained the diamonds in Zimbabwe.
One month later, a
Zimbabwean woman was stopped while in transit at the
Dubai airport with 1.2
million dollars worth of diamonds strapped to her
body.
Mugabe, who
was ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, conceded this year to form a
government of
national unity with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the rival
Movement for
Democratic Change.
Tsvangirai, a former union leader whose brutalised
visage after an assault
by police in 2007 became an iconic image of
Zimbabwe's suffering, became
Zimbabwe's prime minister in February. Since
then, though the country's
economic downward spiral has eased somewhat,
unemployment is still thought
to measure around 94 percent.
A report
in January of this year by New York-based Human Rights Watch,
''Crisis
without Limits'', criticised ''the collapse of Zimbabwe's
healthcare system
and the calculated disregard for the welfare of
Zimbabweans by the ruling
party''.
It went on to cite a cholera epidemic that the United Nations
Office of the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says has killed 4,127
people since
August 2008, a tripling of Zimbabwe's infant mortality rate,
and the five
million Zimbabweans dependent upon international food aid (out
of a
population of around 13.5 million) as indicative of the country's dire
situation. (END/2009)
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Saturday,
May 23, 2009
Court
Reporter
THE court trying Chinowona Mwanda - the driver who was involved
in the
accident that killed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's wife Susan -
visited
the scene of the accident to assess the condition of the
road.
The inspection in loco, which started at 15:50pm and ended at 17:05
pm,
caused a traffic jam at the scene of the accident as motorists using the
Harare-Masvingo Highway were stopped by police to enable the court to
conduct its business.
Officer Commanding Traffic, Northern Region,
Chief Superintendent Martin
Makusha took the court through the indications
at the accident scene.
Chief Supt Makusha explained to the court that the
portion of the road where
Mwanda, who was driving the US Embassy-registered
Nissan UD truck that
side-swiped PM Tsvangirai's car, was in a bad
state.
He said the road had numerous potholes from the 90-kilometre peg
coming from
Chivhu, up to the point where the accident
occurred.
"From Ngezi River up to the accident scene the road had
potholes and it was
uneven.
"The road also showed that it had been
repaired on several occasions," he
said.
The court was shown the
point of impact in the lane in which the PM's
vehicle was travelling, as
well as the tyre marks of the skidding truck,
which are still
visible.
Chief Supt Makusha said the PM's vehicle had veered off the road
to the left
before diverting to the right lane, overturning three times and
landing on
its roof facing Harare.
Earlier at Chivhu magistrates'
court, traffic accident evaluator Mr Joel
Muchirawatu testified that his
investigations established Mwanda caused the
accident through
speeding.
"I established that the accident was caused by the obstruction
of road way
by the accused person. The obstruction emanated from the
excessive speed by
the accused," said Mr Muchirawatu.
He said he
carried out a scientific examination of the portion of the road
in question
and found it was favourable for any vehicle to brake and regain
control
under the circumstances.
However, Mr Muchirawatu was at pains to answer
questions put to him by
defence lawyer Mr Godfrey Mamvura.
The
defence probed him on why his testimony on the state of the road
contradicted that of other witnesses.
Mr Mamvura also queried Mr
Muchirawatu on why he chose to estimate a
distance from which motorists
could possibly see the hump that was hit by
Mwanda's car before getting to
it.
Mr Muchirawatu had testified that he had made accurate measurements
of
distances for certain features at the scene but only gave an estimation
of
the distance from which motorists could see the hump.
The expert
witness said he did not think it necessary to give an accurate
measurement
on the issue of the visibility of the hump.
However, Mr Muchirawatu could
not, under cross-examination, dispute that
Mwanda was travelling within the
speed limit.
Mwanda claims he was driving at 80km per hour - which is the
general limit
for heavy vehicles.
A vehicle examination inspector
testified that the truck hit a hump causing
its springs to stretch but it
broke the rear right spring main leaf when it
came down.
Mwanda is
accused of speeding and as such failing to take proper action when
the
accident was imminent.
Mrs Tsvangirai was pronounced dead on arrival at
Beatrice Hospital.
http://www.latimes.com/
Traditional rituals to appease
the dead have not been performed for years.
Some believe that's the cause
for a recent string of terrible crashes on one
highway.
By Robyn
Dixon
7:25 PM PDT, May 22, 2009
Reporting from Chivhu, Zimbabwe -- The
road is scarred with skid marks, some
curved like snakes, others pencil
straight. They shriek the fates of unlucky
travelers who lost their lives;
they mark the near-misses.
It's not just the treacherous potholes, or the
edges of the road nibbled
away like cookies. It's not the dozing driver
behind the glaring truck
headlights about to veer onto the wrong
side.
People here in central Zimbabwe are afraid of something
else.
The pedestrians crossing the road at night, dressed in black,
walking so
slowly that drivers are forced to swerve -- ghostly figures not
made of skin
and bone. And the mermaid in the Pimbi River, angry at the
blood and
gasoline spilled when a bus crashed into the water two years
ago.
For a long time, things have not been right anywhere in this
beautiful but
tortured country. The economy has collapsed; there's been
conflict, hatred,
repression. But many believe this country's long, grinding
crisis is just a
symptom of something deeper: The ancestors are
angry.
Some people here trace today's road disasters back to the
blood spilled in
1890, on the arrival of white colonialist Cecil Rhodes, who
founded the
diamond company De Beers and settled Zimbabwe. Rhodesia, the
colonial name
for Zimbabwe and Zambia, was named after him.
Under
Rhodes, an invading pioneer column set up camp near what is now the
highway,
and the colonialists called the place Fort Charter. Local people
believe
that many blacks were thrown into a burning pit by the foreigners.
When
bad things happen in Zimbabwe, an uneasy suspicion arises. In times
past,
communities religiously attended to rituals, slaughtering cattle to
keep the
ancestors happy. But in the last 10 or 15 years, many communities
have
neglected the rituals.
Zimbabwean traditional beliefs are as real for
most Christians in rural
areas as they are for those cleaving solely to
African religions. Many urban
dwellers are the same, including top members
of President Robert Mugabe's
Cabinet.
For some, traditional beliefs
permeate every aspect of life: politics,
business, family, illness,
prosperity and fate. They also bring a measure of
daily fear: Demons can
sicken or curse you. Enemies with powerful muti, or
magic, can strike you
with a lightning bolt if challenged. Droughts,
famines, locust plagues and
wildfires happen when ancestors are upset or God
is
displeased.
Arecent string of terrible car accidents here is seen as
another sign of
ancestors' anger. Such suspicions crop up especially when an
accident kills
many people, or prominent ones such as Susan Tsvangirai, the
wife of Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
She died in March after a
truck sideswiped the Tsvangirais' SUV at a place
known as 52, on a bad
35-mile stretch of road an hour or so south of Harare,
the capital, where
the spirits' wrath is feared the most.
Days later, 15 people were injured
when a truck collided with their bus at
52 -- named for the kilometer marker
-- on their way back from her burial.
On April 16, 29 people died when a
bus plunged into the Munyati River on the
same stretch of road.
And
just a few miles closer to Harare on the same road, a row of dented
black
gasoline drums on a bridge over the Pimbi River is a chilling reminder
of
the 11 traders killed in 2007 when a bus crashed through the concrete
barrier into the river. Just after Christmas that year, 12 members of one
family were killed when a bus hit their truck.
Regardless of beliefs,
part of the problem is the last decade of economic
crisis: Roads are left
unrepaired. Drivers can't afford new tires.
The horror of it worries
Andrew Zhakata Chisvu, the chief metekedza, or
traditional leader, from a
place named Just in Time. As a Christian, he
blames part of it on bad roads
and worse drivers. But he also fears that the
rash of bad accidents is a
punishment.
"Why is it happening here only?" he asks.
The chief's
round thatched hut is at the end of a rugged track near the town
of Chivhu,
which spreads along the bad road. A hillock of corncobs lies
drying, a dog
is curled asleep on a mound of sunflower seeds, and goats bob
home in the
evening light.
Greeting the chief, strangers clap their hands together
silently in respect.
He sits solemnly in a tall-backed wooden chair, wearing
a tattered straw
fedora, an ancient jacket and rubber sandals. Behind, the
sun paints an
extravagant red blaze across the evening sky, as if to
emphasize his royal
blood.
His teeth are like crooked gravestones; he
speaks in a whisper.
"Some drivers, when they're passing that area, they
see people with their
eyes, when there's nobody on the road. We think the
spirits of the dead may
still be loitering around there," he murmurs. "So we
need to do a ceremony,
a cleansing, we call it.
"Are we being
punished for something we don't know about? [What we are doing
is] asking
forgiveness through our ancestors to our almighty God because we
are too
poor and too small to go directly to him."
Sharing his fears, all the
traditional chiefs in the area met recently and
agreed to hold a cleansing.
In some places along the road, the ritual has
not been held since the early
1990s, because many of the elders who
performed it have died.
Some
believe that those who tried to perform the rituals since then were the
wrong people and only made things worse.
Murambiwa Mupaiki,
secretary to the traditional chief near Featherstone on
the same road, said
there hadn't been any cleansing rituals at nearby
Dorongo, believed to be
the site of the white pioneer camp, for more than 15
years.
"At
Dorongo we brew beer and beat drums and slaughter beasts to appease the
ancestors," says Mupaiki, holding a black cowboy hat in his hands. "Now it's
a very long time since the rituals have been done."
Unless the ritual
is revived, Mupaiki says, people fear that things could
get much
worse.
"They're afraid of drought. They're afraid there'll be some more
accidents,"
he says. "There could be an outbreak of locusts or another pest.
Or even a
war."
Many traditional leaders, recruited in past years by
the ruling ZANU-PF
party, were so busy with politics and administration that
they had no time
for their old duties, he adds.
"Some people who are
brave enough urge their traditional leaders, 'Don't you
see? Something has
to be done here.' "
But regulars on the road -- professional drivers
who've seen more accidents
than they can count -- just want the road fixed.
Period.
When something goes wrong, says Mnefashi, 39, a bus driver who's
plied the
infamous route for nine years, there's little room for maneuver.
He will
give only his first name for fear of dismissal.
He most
dreads a burst tire -- the most common cause of serious accidents --
which
killed a close colleague and 28 passengers in the Munyati River
accident
last month.
"It sounds like an explosion or a big piece of metal breaking
off the bus,"
he says. "What you need to do is not panic. If you hear that
noise, you have
to be ready for the bus to do anything."
He's burst
three tires and managed to control the bus. One time it veered
off the road,
but he was able to avoid hitting the trees or rolling over.
"There are
people who think there's spirits. There are no bad spirits. It's
just the
potholes in the road," he says.
He carries no talisman to ward off evil
forces. But he does have one bit of
insurance.
"I've been driving
this road for years. I know each and every pothole and
every uncertainty of
the road," he says.
Chisvu, the chief metekedza, sees another solution.
He believes just a
little more humanity will make things right.
"We
have become so politicized that we have turned on each other," he says.
"There's no love."
robyn.dixon@latimes.com
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Saturday,
May 23, 2009
Herald
Reporter
RESULTS for the November 2008 Advanced Level examinations are
finally out,
the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council said
yesterday.
Zimsec information and public relations manager Mr Ezekiel
Pasipamire said
candidates could start collecting results from their
respective centres on
Tuesday next week.
"As the Minister (David
Coltart) said, the results will be out today
(Friday) and indeed the results
are out as we speak right now they are being
dispatched to our various
regional offices countrywide.
"Candidates can collect their results from
their respective examination
centres countrywide from May 26
onwards.
"Accordingly, heads of schools and centre supervisors are
advised to liaise
with their Zimsec regional offices," he said.
Mr
Pasipamire said the results were delayed due to a number of problems,
mostly
to do with funding.
He, however, said that the delay in the release of
the results should not
affect their credibility as a high level of
professionalism was applied in
the marking and verification
process.
"We feel we did a good job in as far as the marking and
verification
exercises are concerned," he said.
Last year, the
country failed to administer public examinations smoothly
owing to an acute
shortage of funds.
The examinations were delayed as was the marking
because invigilators and
markers expressed dissatisfaction with the
allowances that Zimsec was
offering.
Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture Minister David Coltart on Wednesday
announced that "O" Level
examination results could be expected on June 5.
Grade Seven results are
expected on June 26, although the minister was
pessimistic that the deadline
would be met, citing lack of funds and
logistical problems.
He also
announced the postponement of the "O" and "A" Level June
examinations, which
normally commence in the third week of May, rescheduling
them to start on
July 6 and end on July 27.
Examination fees have been pegged at US$10 per
subject for both levels.
http://online.wsj.com/
MAY 23,
2009
By MICHAEL
ALLEN
The Republic of the Congo isn't exactly a hospitable place: Two-thirds
of
its people are crammed into sweltering cities, and it's still struggling
to
get back on its feet after five years of civil conflict. Plus, it rains a
lot.
But for a growing number of South African farmers, it's the
Promised Land.
They're scrambling to get on board an ambitious venture to
reclaim farmland
in Congo's interior and help relieve that country of a
reliance on food
imports. Already some 70 farmers have booked a Congo tour
and more than
3,000 have expressed interest, said Agri-SA, the South African
farming group
organizing the venture.
Fueling the mania were early
reports the Congo was prepared to set aside 10
million hectares of rent-free
land, nearly the size of Ohio. That turns out
to be an
exaggeration.
"That's a stupid number," said Rigobert Maboundou, Congo's
agriculture
minister. "The amount of cultivatable land in Congo amounts to
only 8
million hectares.... If we gave them 10 million hectares, it would
mean
there is nothing left for anyone else, and we have a very big number of
subsistence farmers."
Still, he acknowledges negotiations are
proceeding. According to a draft
memorandum of understanding, Congo is
willing to sign long-term leases and
provide tax breaks and waivers on
duties of imported supplies for approved
projects.
The South Africans
in turn would build infrastructure, employ locals and
instruct them in
modern farming techniques. People familiar with the matter
say the initial
focus will be on restarting state-owned farms abandoned in
1992.
Congo,
like much of sub-Saharan Africa, could use the help. Less than 25% of
the
continent's arable land is cultivated. Africa's use of fertilizer is
only 2%
of the world average. As much as 70% of production comes from small
farmers,
who typically lack access to financing for seeds and equipment.
The
Republic of the Congo, a former French colony bordering the larger
Democratic Republic of the Congo, gets most of its income from oil. Despite
heavy rainfall and fertile soil, only about 2% of its land is farmed. It
imports nearly all of its food, largely from France.
Earlier this
year, Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso approached South
Africa's envoy
about encouraging South African farmers to invest in Congo,
according to
Agri-SA.
South African commercial farmers, mostly the descendants of
Dutch and French
pioneers who began settling the continent's southern tip
centuries ago, are
renowned for their ability to coax food out of African
soil. Eager for their
expertise and capital, African countries from Ghana to
Nigeria have offered
them incentives to set up shop. South African farmers
have turned Mozambique
into a banana powerhouse. Zambia became
self-sufficient in maize after
welcoming farmers from Zimbabwe and from
South Africa.
Such programs can be controversial, touching on sensitive
issues of race,
colonialism and land tenure. Agri-SA is addressing the
concerns with a
multiethnic expedition. "The farmers going to the Congo
aren't just white
farmers," said Andre Botha, who leads the initiative.
"There's black farmers
going with us...white commercial farmers...colored
commercial
farmers...Indian commercial farmers -- going to the Congo as
South African
farmers."
During a recent tour of farmland east of
Johannesburg, Mr. Botha fielded
phone calls from people interested in the
project. One, a mechanical
engineer of Indian origins who grows hydroponic
tomatoes, all but signed up
to go on the spot. "You're the guy for us," Mr.
Botha said cheerfully.
Also part of the caravan is a Salt Lake City firm
called S.K. Hart that has
already bought a farm in South Africa, now managed
by Mr. Botha. The company
is looking to expand in Congo, said owner Khosrow
Semnani, who previously
owned a Utah radioactive-waste-disposal company
called Envirocare.
Some South African farmers are skeptical the venture
will get off the ground
and they say that, if it does, investors will be
vulnerable to land
invasions and political instability. "Nobody around here
is going," said
Lionel Hartman, a farmer in Levubu, in the northern part of
South Africa.
"They're not stupid."
The group says there are treaties
to protect their investments. And in any
case, most plan to keep their South
African farms and view this move as a
savvy diversification.
Theo de
Jager, a farmer and real-estate agent from Tzaneen, South Africa,
has
already visited and says he has picked out plots for himself and some
friends. He hopes to start palm-oil, timber and cattle
operations.
"It's uninhabited. There's water in abundance and two
summers," he said. "I
thought of Congo as one big jungle, but most of it is
savannah and
grasslands."
Write to Michael Allen at mike.allen@wsj.com
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=16841
May 23, 2009
By Allen
Masomere
WE have been hearing a lot about the controversy surrounding the
constitution-making process in Zimbabwe; that Lovemore Madhuku and the NCA
want to be in charge of the process; that Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF want
to stick to the so-called Kariba compact and that the MDC parties seem ready
to compromise one way or the other.
Not surprisingly, the MDC parties
do not seem to have strong opinions about
a whole lot of things these days,
except, perhaps, their desire to hold on
to the peripheral and frugal
margins of political power in the hope that
they are on the right side of
history.
What we do not hear much about is what should be in that
constitution. I am
not suggesting that the process of bringing about a new
constitution is not
critical to the outcome; no doubt a constitution making
process driven by
ruling coalition politicians will likely result in a
constitution that takes
care of the interests of politicians at the expense
of common sense, let
alone the long term interests of peasants, workers and
other disadvantaged
groups.
However, since there is not a whole lot
of time to come up with a new
constitution, and given that the dueling over
the process is likely to
dominate the conversation over the next few months,
those of us who care as
much about the content of the document as we do
about the process of putting
it together, should now begin to think more
specifically about what we would
like to see in the final product.
I
am told that the current constitution does not allow for dual citizenship.
I
do not know the thinking behind this prohibition. If I were to guess, I
would have to say that it was probably a decision targeted at those who were
fleeing from black majority rule and who may have been in a position to use
dual nationality to sabotage the new order. We are facing an entirely
different set of circumstances this time and we ought to seriously consider
allowing dual nationality in a calm and rational
manner.
Unfortunately, some of the current crop of politicians may not be
equipped
for such a thoughtful approach.
One of the potential
benefits of the current economically induced dispersion
is that there are
thousands of Zimbabwean children born or bred abroad.
There also are
thousands of Zimbabweans who have become permanent residents
of other
countries, enjoying the benefits that accrue with such status. In a
sense,
some of these people will naturally have a dual allegiance to the
country of
their birth and the country of their (or their parents') origin.
It may
be that many of them will be able to quickly decide on their
citizenship.
Have no doubt though, that there will be many who will be torn
between two
or more countries. Not that they love Zimbabwe less, but that
they have to
make responsible choices. I submit that these children and
their parents
should have the opportunity to choose dual citizenship.
Over the past few
months, we have heard calls for Zimbabweans to return home
to rebuild the
country. I do not expect to see large-scale movement on this
front until
some of the concerns of those in the Diaspora about what this
would mean for
their family circumstances and with regards to some of the
benefits they may
have earned while living abroad.
Obviously, if one has spent the best
days of one's life in another country,
one has probably earned some benefits
that one would not want to forgo.
Besides, not all members of the same
family may decide to stay or leave, but
they should have the assurance that
they do not have to choose between their
family and their country. If it is
true that Zimbabwe needs these people
more than they need her then we ought
to be flexible about how we help them
to make what may be a very difficult
decision.
Even if such dual nationality were accompanied by certain
minimum conditions
and restrictions, it just seems to me that it ought to be
an option. I
suspect that Zimbabwe would be the chief beneficiary of such an
arrangement
because many of the Zimbabwe-connected people in the Diaspora
are likely to
have received a decent education and would have cultural and
language skills
that enable them to function effectively in a globalizing
world. It would be
a tragedy to tell these people that either they are with
us or against us!
Is it possible to make a reasonable case against dual
nationality? I suspect
so. Many countries have dual citizenship and we
should be able to learn from
some of their experiences. At a minimum, the
constitution-making body should
study this matter. I realize that there may
be a nativist and visceral
opposition to dual citizenship. Others equate it
to "trying to have the best
of both worlds".
The least that we could
do is to fail to even debate the desirability or
otherwise of such a
provision.
But then again, I may be preaching to the
converted!
(Allen Masomere is a Zimbabwean living in the Diaspora. You
can read his
blog at www.somnolentgenius.blogspot.com)
Dear Family and Friends,
As Zimbabwe struggles out of the darkness of
a decade of dictatorship
and political mayhem we are beginning to see how
hard the return
journey is going to be. And how long. Little snapshots tell
the
story:
Two policemen, in uniform and on foot, did a walkabout tour
of some
local businesses this week. They want to improve relations, they
say,
but need assistance with the basics. They desperately need tyres
for
their vehicle and are looking for donations from the public. If
you
can't run to tyres then how about typewriters, or paper they
ask,
saying they have no stationery.
Typewriters! Can you imagine
modern policing being done, not on
computers but typewriters! For a couple of
years members of the
public have had to provide their own fingerprint forms,
vehicle
clearance forms and even their own affidavit forms when visiting
a
police station and then wait endlessly as records are handwritten.
With
such problems as pens and paper, it doesn't bear thinking how
long it might
take to restore law and order at higher levels, in
regard to things like
property rights, human rights and farm
invasions.
Two well known
shops with branches all over the country went into
darkness this week as
their electricity supply was disconnected.
Having no tills, computers, lights
or other equipment took them back
into the dark ages in a hurry. They had
been disconnected for non
payment because the amounts being demanded by ZESA
(the electricity
supplier) are in the thousands of US dollars - more than a
company's
entire monthly turnover. Similar exorbitant amounts are being
charged
by the state controlled fixed line telephone company and everyone
is
reeling and then despairing as they are disconnected. It appears
that
the electricity and telephone suppliers are trying to recoup 10
years
worth of collapse in just a few months but their greed and speed
is
putting business and the rebuilding of the country into a new cycle
of
shutdown.
Cause for much excitement this week has been the
availability, suddenly, of telephone lines for mobile phones.
For
more than eight years these lines have been non-existent,
available only on
the black market. In January this year a line on
the black market cost 135 US
dollars.This week phone lines are
available legally for 35 US dollars - still
ten times more expensive
than in our neighbouring countries but they are
selling like hot
cakes. Oppressive Zanu PF legislation concerning access
to
information and the free press has not been repealed but the
sudden
boom in phone lines is a dramatic step forward for Zimbabweans
who
can now send and receive their own information without the
political
shackles.
Until next time from the land of golden grass,
thanks for reading,
love cathy Copyright cathy buckle 23 May 2009 www.cathybuckle.com
<http://www.cathybuckle.com/>