http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai Karimakwenda
18
November, 2011
Negotiators to Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement, who
have been
deadlocked over contentious issues, met on Friday in Harare after
a long
break, aiming to make some progress on the deal signed more than
three years
ago by Zimbabwe’s political leaders.
A detailed report on
the meeting’s outcome is to be presented to the
facilitation team
representing the regionally appointed chief negotiator,
President Jacob Zuma
of South Africa.
Zuma’s international relations advisor, Lindiwe Zulu,
told SW Radio Africa
on Friday that her facilitation team is due back in
Harare next week to iron
out the challenges the negotiators fail to resolve
on Friday. As they have
made no progress for 3 years this may keep the
facilitators busy. Zulu
confirmed that President Zuma will travel to Harare
soon after that, but no
date has been set yet.
Deadlines for key
reforms agreed to by the negotiators have not been met and
little progress
has been made in resolving the outstanding issues. Media,
electoral and
security sector reforms have emerged as the most contentious
issues.
Lindiwe Zulu would not be drawn to pointing fingers at the
political party
that has presented the most obstacles. Asked if she agreed
with the general
consensus that ZANU PF presents the most resistance to
change, Zulu said:
“It’s not about resistance as such as we understand it,
parties behave one
way or the other depending on their
position.”
Zulu said some progress has been made in terms of security
sector reforms,
but did not specify exactly what had been agreed. “It is a
sensitive issue
for everybody given Zimbabwe’s historical background. But
the fact that it
continues to be on the table shows that it has to be
resolved,” Zulu said.
Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, representing the
MDC-N, also said the
Friday meeting would scrutinize issues that were agreed
to but had not been
implemented. According to the Daily News newspaper, she
estimated that 90%
of the issues agreed to had not been implemented. The
other 10% were still
to be negotiated.
Friday, 18 November 2011
The MDC is saddened by the gruesome
murder of Mr Albert Vhiriri, a senior member and founder of the MDC who died on
Wednesday in Harare in a suspicious case of politically motivated violence. Mr
Vhiriri, a pensioner, died on arrival at the Harare Central Hospital. He was
discovered by neighbours late Wednesday afternoon in his room unconscious, naked
and lying on the bloodied floor with serious injuries all over his
body.
No arrests have been made so far.
The MDC notes with concern
that Mr Vhiriri’s death comes barely a week after the three main political
principals had met in Harare and denounced any form of violence. However, it is
clear that some members in Zanu PF, especially the notorious gang Chipangano
have not taken heed of this call and continue to unleash violence. The MDC is
further concerned that the death of Mr Vhiriri comes at a time when Zanu PF
chairperson Simon Khaya Moyo is busy encouraging his party supporters to be
violent.
We urge the police to carry out thorough investigations into
Vhiriri’s death and bring the culprits to book urgently. Since the formation of
the MDC in 1999, Mr Vhiriri remained resolute in his fight for real change in
Zimbabwe and will be sadly missed by all in the MDC.
The MDC extends is
condolences to the Vhiriri family and relatives. His body will be ferried
tonight to Vhiriri Village in Buhera, his rural home for burial tomorrow,
Saturday.
The people’s struggle for real change: Let’s finish
it!!!
--
MDC Information & Publicity Department
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
18 November 2011
The editor of the weekly Zimbabwe Standard
newspaper, Nevanji Madanhire, has
deplored ‘powerful figures’ linked to ZANU
PF for using defamation laws to
try and muzzle the media in
Zimbabwe.
Madanhire and reporter Nqaba Matshazi spent a night in police
cells this
week after they were picked up in Harare on Tuesday and charged
with theft,
unlawful entry and criminal defamation.
The scribes were
arrested over a story Matshazi wrote two weeks ago that
claimed a new health
insurance firm, Green Card Medical Society owned by the
powerful Munyaradzi
Kereke, was on the brink of collapse.
The duo was bailed on Wednesday but
police visited the Standard newspaper
offices the next day, looking for two
scribes, this time over a story
Matshazi wrote last month.
In that
article, Matshazi alleged that Home Affairs co-Minister Kembo Mohadi
was
muscling out resettled farmers in Beitbridge to create room for his son
and
nephew.
The detectives who visited the Standard newsroom, said they
wanted to record
statements from the two journalists about how they got
documents used in
writing the article. The officers said the two should
report to the Harare
Central Police Station’s Law and Order section on
Friday.
Madanhire told SW Radio Africa on Friday that he will only
present himself
to the police on Monday, as he was not physically or
emotionally in a
position to give a statement now as he was sick.
‘I
came out of police cells not feeling well on Wednesday, so I’m home
resting.
Our legal representatives have notified the police of this
arrangement,’
said Madanhire, who has been arrested four times by the police
this
year.
He continued: ‘What has been at the core of our problems is the
willingness
by the police to readily act on political instructions to arrest
journalists
on criminal defamation charges.’
‘This is a colonial
legislation and unfortunately any powerful figures from
ZANU PF who think
they have been wronged can now walk into a police station
and instruct them
to act against journalists. This law infringes the freedom
of
expression.”
Meanwhile ZANU PF militias, with the help of soldiers
stationed at an army
garrison near Magunje centre, have been blocking the
sale of independent
newspapers, the Daily News and Newsday. Reports on
Friday said even Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s newsletter was prevented
from being distributed
in the area. Social commentator Dr Maxwell Shumba
told us the crackdown on
the media was a sign of an end game.
They
are trying to hurt those that are bringing out the truth as much as
possible
whilst they can still can. But they wont succeed,’ Shumba
said.Media
watchdog MISA-Zimbabwe issued a statement saying they were
gravely concerned
that the Criminal Law Act is increasingly being used as
the law of first
resort to silence the media.
‘This media onslaught and continued
harassment, if not persecution of
journalists working for the Standard
weekly newspaper, brings urgency on the
need for comprehensive media reforms
and the repealing of archaic and
undemocratic laws which impinge on media
freedom and freedom of expression,’
MISA said on Friday.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare,November 18, 2011 -Detectives on
Thursday summoned Nevanji Madanhire,
the editor of The Standard newspaper
and reporter Nqaba Matshazi to assist
with investigations into a criminal
defamation charge just two days after
they were arrested on a similar charge
at the best of Reserve Bank advisor
Munyaradzi Kereke.
This time Home
Affairs co-minister Kembo Mohadi is the complainant over a
story published
by the paper in October alleging that the veteran politician
was trying to
force out some war veterans off their
land to make way for his son and
nephew.
He reported the case in Gwanda and there are fears the detectives
will take
the journalists to the Matabeleland South capital, which is over
500
kilometers outside Harare.
The policemen who visited the Alpha
Media Holdings offices led by a
Detective Inspector Mukwaira ordered the two
to report at Harare Central
Police Station on Friday after they were told
Madanhire was
off due to sickness.
On Wednesday, Madanhire and
Matshazi were granted US$100 bail each and
ordered to surrender their
passports by Harare magistrate after they were
charged with criminal
defamation and theft of documents from
Kereke’s medical insurance company,
Green Card.
The paper had reported that the society was facing imminent
collapse because
its income far outweighed expenditure.
Kereke also
launched a US$2 million civil suit against the newspaper owed by
Alpha Media
Holdings (AMH), the publishers of the Zimbabwe Independent and
NewsDay.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) has
severed links with
Kereke over his role in Madanhire and Matshazi’s
arrest.
ZUJ said although Kereke was one of its major sponsors for this
year’s
journalistic awards, it cannot continue associating with him after
his
actions that threatened press freedom and the right by the media
to
free expression.
“As ZUJ we subscribe totally to the higher values
of a free media and we
will not hesitate to defend the media’s unfettered
freedom to expose the
ills of society,” ZUJ said in a statement.
“We
therefore declare that in future we will not deal with Dr Kereke in
programmes that seek to enhance journalistic standards because his actions
put him in direct confrontation with the cherished ideals of a free media.”
http://www.voanews.com/
17 November
2011
About 55 percent of those surveyed said corruption is on the
increase,
noting that Zimbabweans are being forced to pay bribes to obtain
services
that they should be receiving at little or no cost
Violet
Gonda & Sandra Nyaira | Washington
The Zimbabwe branch of
Transparency International said Thursday that a
recent survey found the
Zimbabwe Republic Police is considered the most
corrupt public institution
in the country followed by political parties,
civil servants, the
legislature and the judiciary.
The Transparency International Zimbabwe
global corruption barometer compiled
public opinion on corruption in
Zimbabwe and how it affects the lives of
Zimbabweans.
The group
surveyed just over a thousand people between April and May 2011 to
come up
with a report representative of the population. About 55 percent of
those
surveyed said corruption is on the increase, noting that Zimbabweans
are
being forced to pay bribes to obtain services that they should be
receiving
for free as citizens.
Transparency International Zimbabwe Program Officer
Nyasha Frank Mpahlo said
that the survey findings show that the current
national unity government has
not been effective in combating corruption
during its 33 months in power.
No comment could immediately be obtained
from the recently named
anti-corruption commission. But UK-based journalist
Innocent Chofamba
Sithole said there’s not much the commission can
accomplish if there is no
political will to tackle
corruption.
Zimbabweans told Amnesty International that they are tired of
being asked to
pay for services they should be receiving at no cost from
government
departments like the Vehicle Inspection Department and the Office
of the
Registrar General.
For perspective, VOA reporter Violet Gonda
turned to former police assistant
commissioner Jonathan Chaora and Attorney
Kucaca Phulu.
Chaora said it is hard for ordinary police officers to
abstain from
corruption when top officials like Commissioner General
Augustine Chihuri do
not uphold the law.
http://mg.co.za
JASON MOYO HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Nov 18 2011 07:05
In
decaying hostels in Mbare, Harare's poorest township, Zanu-PF has been
raising Chipangano, its feared urban militia.
In one of the crowded
hostels there is a President Robert Mugabe campaign
poster above the
entrance to a grim single room shared by three families --
separated by
plastic sheeting and cardboard.
Outside, youths lean against a crumbling
wall daubed with political graffiti
and pass around a joint. Inside the dark
corridors children splash in a
stream of water from a burst
pipe.
These residents had a chance of better housing -- the Bill &
Melinda Gates
Foundation planned to build 80 new homes here, refurbish the
hostels and
sink a borehole.
But, after Chipangano demanded "51%" of
the new homes for its members and
the right to parcel out the rest as it
wished, the project moved on to
another township, said Harare's mayor,
Muchadeyi Masunda.
Chipangano, Shona for "the oath" or "the pact", is
behind much of the
violence that has hit Harare townships in recent weeks.
Using fear and
extortion Chipangano maintains Zanu-PF control of areas it
has repeatedly
lost to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in
elections. Among the
hundreds of youths who live here with no hope of
landing a job, its promises
of power and money find an army of willing
recruits.
After clashes in Harare between rival party youths, Mugabe and
Morgan
Tsvangirai last Friday jointly addressed a meeting of their parties
to call
for an end to violence. But the deepening poverty in Harare's
townships
makes it hard for youths to resist joining militia groups, who ply
them with
money and alcohol.
At weekends, the youths are herded to
meetings at the hostels, where they
are mobilised to take control of the
local markets and sniff out the
opposition. The group has seized control of
council operations in the
township -- even taking over a local council
office -- and now determines
who gets to set up stalls at the markets,
collecting fees from traders and
taxis.
At the Mupedzanhamo market,
where hundreds of traders sell everything from
second-hand clothes to lucky
charms, traders need a Zanu-PF membership card
and are forced to pay a
"protection" fee and a monthly levy to Chipangano.
Fortune through
extortion
Outside the market scores of young men line the perimeter wall with
their
pushcarts, waiting to be hired by the traders to carry goods. They
must pay
a fee or they are not allowed near the market.
Earlier this
month violence erupted when Chipangano set up its own "taxi
rank" and
ordered operators to pay a "toll fee". Police were overpowered and
an army
unit had to be called in to restore calm, according to residents.
At
Siya-So, a teeming market that sells car parts and other hardware, a
Chipangano offshoot calling itself the Zimbabwe Home Industries and
Marketers Association hands out stalls to workmen for a fee.
With
thousands of traders making their living in the markets there is a
fortune
to be made through extortion. The money is channelled to the top
politicians
said to be in the background and shared among warlords to pay
off the
militia, with a small portion going to the local council.
Chipangano has
been useful to Zanu-PF. When the party holds a rally in
Harare the militia
shuts down the markets and force-marches the traders to
swell the numbers in
the crowd. "They make the rules. You complain, you're
victimised as an
opposition activist," said Precious Shumba of the Harare
Residents' Trust
community development group, which operates in the
township.
"The
leaders make decisions about who gets what, where, when, why and how.
In
their operations these complex lines are maintained and respected, just
like
in a cult movement."
That nobody knows who leads Chipangano adds to the
group's mystery. Police
appear powerless to stop it, while the Harare
council has been overrun.
Chipangano emerged in 2001, a year after the
MDC swept up urban seats in the
general election. It has been used as a
weapon to cow the party's urban
support, while disrupting the party's
council programmes.
Zanu-PF denies it has any control over the group.
Spokesperson Rugare Gumbo
claims the party is as eager as anyone to find out
who is behind the
movement.
Senior party officials in Mbare also
publicly deny any involvement.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
17/11/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
RUMOURS of the discovery of diamond deposits in a small
village in
Beitbridge have triggered a wave of human traffic to the
area.
The stampede began last month after a Harare man, named locally as
Rasim
Kassim, was granted a prospector’s licence to explore for aquamarine –
a
blue-green variety of the mineral beryl, from the same family as
emeralds.
Word soon went round that Kassim was in fact trying to disguise
a diamond
find, and since then fortune hunters have piled in to the
Ponongoma area,
near Zezane Mission, to dig for gemstones.
Locals
have put up barricades to block access to the area, while deploying a
night
watchman to stop diggers who are arriving in the area on bicycles,
motorbikes and cars – in their number teachers, nurses, bus drivers,
goat-herders, schoolchildren and street kids.
A local community
leader, Headman Mazibeli, said excavations by both Kassim
and the illegal
diamond diggers had desecrated an old graveyard.
Tapson Mlaudzi, 83, has
lived all his life in the area and says he has never
seen anything like
it.
“Every night, when a member of the neighbourhood watch guarding the
site has
gone home to sleep, people, including some villagers, go in and dig
around,”
Mlaudzi said.
“There are usually a number of cars that come
here every night. We know
there are diamonds here because no-one can go
through the effort of digging
through all that rock for
nothing.”
Malaji Mbedzi, 61, the leader of the local neighbourhood watch
said: “It’s
out of control. I don’t know where these people who bring cars
here at night
come from. The government should act on this urgently because
I also need to
sleep.
“I don’t know of anyone who has found diamonds
here. If there are any,
people from this poor area should be the first to
benefit.”
David Alphonse Mpofu, the Provincial Administrator for
Matabeleland South,
said officials would be visiting the area next week to
assess the situation.
“Reports have been made to the police and the
district administrator’s
office. It clearly needs attention and we will send
teams there to try and
understand what’s going on,” he said by telephone
from Gwanda.
Mbedzi said Kassim was last in the area on Monday this week
after turning up
with “two white men” whom he introduced as American
investors.
Advertisement
He added: “He was angry when he found
evidence that someone had tampered
with the mine. He said he had already
bought machines and would soon be
setting up a proper mining
venture.”
Officials say although Kassim’s licence is for aquamarine, he
can convert
this to another mineral through a simple administrative
procedure.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Bulawayo residents have
expressed dismay over the increase in the already
rampant load shedding by
the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).
Residents said that it is
common knowledge that load shedding will not be
done away with anytime soon
as the power utility, ZESA, has announced in the
public media that load
shedding will not cease.
18.11.1102:54pm
by Bulawayo Progressive Residents
Association
The power utility officials have said that the collapse
of some of the
electricity generating equipment at Hwange Power Station and
the fact that
the Bulawayo Thermal Station is not operational mean that the
electricity
available is not sufficient to sustain the nation. In response
to this
residents have asserted that the power utility should not give
excuses for
its failure to maintain equipment. Part of the responsibility of
the
parastatal is to ensure smooth running of all its equipment and its
failures
should not belabor the residents.
Commuters bemoan police
corruption
Commuter operators plying Luveve road have said they are fed
up with corrupt
police officers. Initially they had passed complaints about
traffic police
that always find faults but require bribes from the commuter
operators.
Currently the issue they have is with various departments of the
police
force as they all require bribes from the commuter
operators.
Some commuters witnessed riot police monitoring traffic along
Luveve road
and soliciting for bribes from public transport operators. The
first logical
thing that comes into one’s mind is that police have presented
themselves
with the privilege of unnecessarily soliciting for bribes even
where their
services are not relevant. Residents have said that by virtue of
engaging in
such criminal activities the police force does not deserve
respect but
instead security sector reform should be prioritized.
BPRA
activities for the weekend (19 and 20 November 2011)
This weekend,
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) will be
holding two
training workshops which are penciled in for Ward 25 (Nketa) and
ward 18
(Magwegwe). The training in Nketa will be held on Sunday 20 November
2011 at
the Early Childhood Pre-School while the one in Magwegwe will be
held on
Saturday 19 November 2011 at Magwegwe pre-School.
The training workshops
are part of the Residents Leadership Development
Programme under which
residents’ leaders in all of Bulawayo’s 29 wards will
be trained in the
Urban Council’s Act, the Environment Management Act,
Gender and
Participatory Budgeting. The two trainings to be held over the
coming
weekend will cover the Urban Council’s Act and the Environment
Management
Act.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
18 November 2011
The
MDC-T says the State has ‘scuttled’ attempts to have its Youth Assembly
Chairperson Solomon Madzore released on bail, after his application for
release was postponed for a third time this week.
Madzore is still
being held at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, more than
a month since his
arrest in connection with the death of a policeman in Glen
View in May.
Madzore is one of 28 MDC-T members facing trumped-up murder
charges.
Madzore was arrested last month, and his original bail
application was
rejected after numerous delays. His fresh application has
now been postponed
three times this week alone.
Edmore Nyazamba, the
State prosecutor, on Friday failed to appear at the
High Court for the bail
application forcing High Court judge, Justice
Hlekani Mwayera to defer the
matter to next Tuesday.
At the start of the fresh bail hearing on
Wednesday Nyazamba appealed for
more time to present his submissions. After
presenting his submissions on
Thursday, the matter was postponed to
Friday.
Madzore’s lawyer, Gift Mtisi, has raised concerns over the
continued
postponement of the bail application as it is seriously affecting
his
client. The MDC-T Youth Assembly Secretary General meanwhile has accused
the
State of “deliberately frustrating” the legal process, to keep Madzore
behind bars.
http://www.zimeye.org/
By A
Correspondent
Published: November 18, 2011
(Harare)There was
confusion yesterday as national airline Air Zimbabwe
bosses were last night
detained by workers who spent the night at work
demanding payment of their
outstanding salaries.
The workers who number up to 700 and constitute a
large portion of Air Zim’s
entire workforce virtually held the bosses
hostage refusing to allow the
leave until they were paid.
The
airline’s acting group chief executive officer Mr Moses Mapanda and an
official from the fina-nce department, Mr Nicholas Mujeri, detained by the
workers.
The airline currently owes workers US$5,6 million in
outstanding salaries.
A workers’ representative, who declined to be named,
said they had not been
paid for over five months and had no money for
transport, food and rent.
Those who refused to go home yesterday include
technical and non-technical
staff.
“We are going to sleep here. Our
colleagues have gone home claiming they are
sick, while others said they
wanted to take care of their young children.
“We have no money and we are
not going anywhere,” he said.
The workers said management promised to give
them US$200 as part payment of
the outstanding salaries, but ran out of
money during the day.
Some of the 409 workers, who were retrenched
recently, were part of the
workers that held the overnight
vigil.
However, Mr Mapanda said the workers were not on a full-scale
strike.
He, however, confirmed that they had problems in paying workers’
salaries on
time.
“We are in the meantime doing some interim payments
and we do not have money
to pay them all. We pay as we make the money and we
are targeting to pay
them all in two weeks.
“We started paying them
US$200 since Friday last week from the sales that we
are making and we have
covered over 50 percent of them,” said Mr Mapanda.
There are 700 workers
who are yet to be paid varying amounts in outstanding
sala-ries.
Recently, Airzim planes were grounded as pilots went on
strike demanding to
be paid outstanding salaries.
The state-owned
airline’s problems have built up over the last decade owing
to
mismanagement, ageing planes and delays in changing the airline’s
ticketing
policy from the worthless Zimbabwe dollar to the multi-currency
system now
in use since 2009. The Zimbabwe government’s failure to acquire
new planes,
say airline bosses, has given the advantage to its competitors.
The airline,
said to be making a US$3 million loss every month, was brought
to its knees
in September last year after pilots went on a two-week strike.
A second
walkout in March this year lasted a month. A senior manager at the
airline
said earlier this year: “The strike last September was catastrophic
for the
already struggling company. We have been playing catch-up since, and
the
second strike this year made that job doubly difficult.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
18
November 2011
The High Court has indefinitely postponed the legal
challenge over the
leadership of the smaller MDC faction, which has pitted
deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara against Industries Minister Welshman
Ncube.
The two are fighting over who legally is entitled to the
leadership position
of the breakaway faction, after a fallout in the party
saw Ncube take over
from Mutambara earlier this year.
Mutambara made
way for Ncube as the new MDC President in January, where a
party congress
voted overwhelmingly in Ncube’s favour as the new MDC-N
leader. Ncube’s MDC
then held a National Council meeting in February, where
they expelled
Mutambara from the party, accusing him of ignoring a directive
to step down
as the country’s deputy Premier.
Mutambara then challenged the legality
of the congress vote, and insisted
that he remained the party leader.
Ncube’s MDC then took the matter to the
Bulawayo High Court and in March
Judge Nicholas Ndou ruled that Mutambara
could not ‘purport’ to be president
of the party and was “interdicted from
exercising any function vested in the
president of the MDC and/or principal
in the inclusive
government.”
Ncube’s MDC then filed an application for confirmation of
this provisional
order, to effectively bar Mutambara from acting as MDC
leader. But on
Wednesday Justice Lawrence Kamocha on Wednesday indefinitely
reserved his
ruling.
The court’s decision is set to have a major
impact on the make-up of the
unity government, with Mutambara still holding
the position of Deputy
Premier. The position was bestowed upon him through
the Global Political
Agreement (GPA) as the then leader of the smaller
MDC.
Political analyst John Makumbe said the court’s decision could drag
on for
months, depending on who it rules in favour of. If it rules in
Ncube’s
favour, it will be up to Robert Mugabe to swear him into the Deputy
Prime
Minister position, which Mugabe might not agree to.
Makumbe
meanwhile said the ongoing bickering between the MDC leadership
“makes it
difficult to see how the parties will ever come together.” In
recent weeks,
Ncube has been on the offensive against Morgan Tsvangirai and
has previously
described him as a “ceremonial Prime Minister” who has
“betrayed”
Zimbabweans.
But Makumbe said this animosity is not being felt lower down
the party
structures. Makumbe is the MDC-T technical advisor in the
interparty team
heading the constitutional reform process, COPAC.
“I
have seen the representatives from the two MDCs working closely together
against ZANU PF and the slurs coming from the top leadership are not being
paid much attention to at lower levels,” Makumbe said.
He added: “I
am hoping that this would hold and result in future
possibilities of
negotiating to work together to oust Robert Mugabe and ZANU
PF from office.”
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Business Writer
Friday, 18 November
2011 14:02
HARARE - The Zimbabwean government has finally agreed to
clear its long-
outstanding debt of about $260 million owed to Zambia for
the shared Kariba
Dam infrastructure the country inherited at
independence.
However, energy minister Elton Mangoma says the country
currently has no
capacity to settle the 30-year-old debt.
“We
discussed and agreed that the interest would no longer be paid but only
$70,8 million plus the initial evaluation of $70,8 million,” he
said.
“It was agreed interest should be written off but the capital
amount should
be paid within 3 years, but Zimbabwe does not have the
capacity to pay,”
Mangoma said.
The Zambian energy minister, Chris
Yaluma was quoted in the Zambian media
confirming that a commitment had been
made by the Zimbabwe energy minister
to settle the long overdue
debt.
“When the assets were sold, the component of the money due to
Zambia was not
given. There has been some interest accrued and the
Zimbabwean government is
trying to look for a fair solution where the
Zambian government drops off
the interest and they simply pay the principle
or consider paying the
accrued interest,” the Zambian minister
said.
The dispute between Zambia and Zimbabwe revolved around an unpaid
debt for
infrastructure that Zimbabwe inherited at independence from the
Central
African Power Corporation during the federation era.
Failure
by Zimbabwe to settle its neighbour’s debt had been identified among
some of
the reasons that have stalled the construction of the 1 600 megawatt
Batoka
hydro-power station.
The power project situated 50 kilometres downstream
of Victoria Falls, first
mooted in 1993, was meant to be a joint venture
between Zimbabwe and Zambia
but lack of funding and reluctance by the
Zambian government to start the
project delayed its
implementation.
The Zimbabwe government has already submitted the
ambitious project among 20
others to the China Export and Import Bank
(Eximbank) for funding.
The country has signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) with Sino Hydro
of China for the expansion of the Kariba
South Bank through funding from
Chinese financial institutions.
Sino
Hydro has submitted the requisite proposals for the expansion including
conceptual design, construction and methodology for the multi-billion dollar
project.
The planned expansion is meant to have capacity to produce
between 250 - 360
megawatts.
Sino Hydro corporation is currently
expanding North Bank Power Station in
Zambia, with funds from the Eximbank
which the civil works are expected to
be completed by October this
year.
The development regarding the Kariba expansion come after the
signing of a
MoU by Zesa Holdings with South Africa’s Hatch Africa Energy
for consultancy
services for the expansion of the Kariba and Hwange power
plants.
Under the plan unveiled in August last year, Zesa had invited
interested
major power consumers to take up three of its small thermal power
stations
in Bulawayo, Munyati and Harare for own consumption and disposal of
surplus
generation to its national grid at agreed tariffs. Zesa recently
announced
that it was losing about $642 million per year due to a poor
billing system.
The power utility was losing almost $500 million because
of load-shedding
and at least $100 million owing to its billing
system.
The country has a total installed capacity of 1 680 megawatts,
with 750 MW
from Kariba South, 780 MW from Hwange Power Station and 150 MW
from small
thermals — but only 940 MW of this is currently available against
a peak
demand of 1 950 MW.
The utility company owes regional
suppliers over $100 million for
electricity imports.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
Staff Reporter
7 hours 38 minutes ago
HARARE – The increasingly paranoid Zimbabwean
strongman Robert Mugabe has
put Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangira on
unprecedented high level State
security surveillance amid reports of
pandemonium and panic over his bid to
put Zimbabwe on the United Nations
radar, local media reported on Friday.
Rocked by events in the North
Africa Robert Mugabe has appealed to China
and Russia to protect him from
attacks by the United States and Europe amid
reports that he is increasingly
agitated that he and the Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad are now high value
targets of the West after the ouster and
eventual street mob assassination
of Libyan dictator Colonel Mammaur
Gaddafi.
Leaked
information to the newspaper says official sources said Tsvangirai
has come
under high level close state watch over his political activities
and
maneuvers ahead of elections next year or in 2013 amid fears by
President
Mugabe and his security operators that he was lobbying to put
Zimbabwe on
the United Nations Security Council agenda if poll results are
disputed
again.
Tsvangirai is being closely monitored all over the place by state
security
agencies as they try to detect and decipher his political moves,
mainly
after elections, in the wake of events in countries like Ivory Coast
and
Libya.
This morning a senior source in the intelligence
said the issue of
electronic surveillance and eavesdropping were discussed
with the Chinese
intelligence officers and during the President’s visit to
China which
included Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
Director-General Happyton
Bonyongwe.
The source said a
Chinese high level security delegation will arrive in the
country next week
to assist in setting up detailed electronic and Satelite
surveilance on the
Prime Minister.
The source said China’s Defense Minister Cao
Gangchuan in Beijing who is
also the vice chairman of the Central Military
Commission has tasked Liang
Guanglie, chief of General Staff of the Chinese
People's Liberation Army
(PLA) to raise the level of military cooperation
between the two countries
and sources said he will soon be meeting members
of Zimbabwe’s notoroius
powerful body, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) to
find common ground on
countering possible threats like the ones experienced
in the Arab Spring.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's trip to
Morocco has touched a nerve with
George Charamba, spokesman for Robert
Mugabe, who says the prime minister
traveled to Rabat as part of a
diplomatic effort to engineer a Libyan-style
scenario of Western
intervention for regime change in Harare.
A recent column in the
state-controlled Herald newspaper signed by Nathaniel
Manheru - long
considered a pen name for Charamba - accused Mr. Tsvangirai
of using the
media to project an image of violence and chaos in
Zimbabwe.
Morocco is a non-permanent member of the United Nations
Security Council,
and Mr. Tsvangirai has recently visited other African
Security Council
members such as Gabon, South Africa and Nigeria, and met
with United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. He is scheduled to visit
Washington later
this year, adding to Zanu-PF anxieties.
But
sources in Mr. Tsvangirai's power-sharing Movement for Democratic Change
say
the prime minister went to Morocco to address the prestigious Amadeus
Institute, a think tank, with the likes of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila
Odinga and Libyan Interim Prime Minister Abdurraheem El-Keib.
On
Wednesday, Mugabe met acting Chinese President Xi Jinping where he called
on
Russia and China to provide a buffer against the “Anglo-Saxon alliance’s
expansionist agenda given what Nato did in Libya and threats posed to Syria
and Iran,” his spokesman told state owned Herald newspaper
yesterday.
“Countries like China and Russia must provide both
leadership and
protection,” President Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba
quoted him as
telling the Chinese leader.
Mr Mugabe, in power
since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, said
Western countries
were after his country’s mineral wealth.
“Nature has disbursed
its resources in its own ways to different countries
with some countries
richly endowed while some are not. Even us who do not
have oil feel no less
menaced as these rapacious countries are looking for
other resources,” Mr
Mugabe said.
At the height of Zimbabwe’s political problems,
Russia and China repeatedly
blocked EU and US attempts to have the United
Nations Security Council
impose sanctions on the southern African
country.
“All this (Zimbabwe’s wealth) is envied and we need
protection,” President
Mugabe reportedly said. “We rely on good friends like
you to protect us and
you have done that in the past. We do not lose
confidence in you and please
do not lose confidence in us.”
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, November 18, 2011-
Defiant Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede has
petitioned the Supreme Court
seeking an order to overturn a ruling by High
Court Judge Justice Susan
Mavangira ordering him to renew the passport of a
Canadian-based Zimbabwean,
Sebastian Piroro.
In a sign that Mudede is determined to deny Piroro a
new travel document,
the Registrar-General recently approached the Supreme
Court asking to be
allowed to oppose Justice Mavangira’s judgment arguing
that his lawyers did
not get the judgment on time hence the failure to meet
the deadline for
filing an appeal.
“I have not willfully delayed in
filing the Notice of Opposition. My
erstwhile legal practitioner who was
seized with this matter could not
deal with it timeously as he was in ill
health and furthermore he only
managed to obtain the reasons of judgment on
the 7th September 2011,” wrote
Mudede in an affidavit accompanying his
application for condonation.
Already, Mudede is facing contempt of court
charges for failing to adhere to
Justice Mavangira’s ruling in March
declaring his refusal to renew Piroro’s
passport as unlawful. Mudede did not
oppose the judgment within the set
time.
In his Supreme Court
application Mudede argues that his failure to renew
Piroro’s passport was
because the matter was of “national
importance.”
“This matter is very
complex and it requires the Full Bench of the
Constitutional Court to deal
with it,” says Mudede.
Bryant Elliot of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR), who is
representing Piroro dismissed Mudede’s application as a
“nullity”.
The High Court in March gave Mudede a two week ultimatum to
renew Piroro’s
passport in March. Mudede has been refusing to renew Piroro’s
passport
arguing that the accounting strategist for a Canadian financial
institution
was a Mozambican national.
But Justice Mavangira in the
ruling being ignored by Mudede said Piroro was
a citizen of Zimbabwe by
birth in terms of Section 5 of the Constitution.
Justice Mavangira
declared that “the provisions of Section 9 (7) of the
Citizenship of
Zimbabwe Act (Chapter 4:01) in so far as it relates to
citizenship by birth
were ultra vires the powers vested in the Parliament of
Zimbabwe in terms of
Section 9 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and are in
consequence of no force
or effect.”
Mudede is now represented by Mudenda Attorneys after being
ditched, first by
lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office and then
by
Mushonga, Mutsvairo and Associates.
Piroro was born and educated in
Zimbabwe and had sought to renew his
passport at the Zimbabwean embassy in
Ottawa.
The travelling document was issued in 2000 and wanted the
passport renewed
after it expired last year. But in response Mudede refused,
alleging that
Piroro was a dual citizen on account of his father
having
been born in Mozambique.
Mudede said Piroro should first renounce his
purported Mozambican
citizenship-which he does not hold-before he could
obtain a new
Zimbabwe passport.
In his argument, which was thrown out
by the High Court Judge, Mudede argued
that Piroro should have renounced his
purported citizenship between 6 July
2001 and 6 January 2002 under the
provisions of section 9 (7) of the
Citizenship of Zimbabwe
Act.
Mudede argued that although Piroro was born in Zimbabwe and spent
most of
his life in the country, he had lost his Zimbabwean citizenship and
was now
regarded as an “alien”.
Piroro’s father, Saidon, was born in
Mozambique. He migrated to Zimbabwe
around 1955 and never returned to
Mozambique. He became a citizen of
Zimbabwe by registration and had a
Zimbabwean identity number. Piroro’s
mother, born in Marondera, was a
citizen of Zimbabwe by birth.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tobias Manyuchi Friday 18 November
2011
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s constitutional reforms could face
further delays after a
multi-party committee leading the drafting of the new
governance charter
said it was facing difficulties securing funds for a key
conference to
discuss the reforms.
Constitutional Parliamentary
Select Committee (COPAC) joint-chairman
Douglass Mwonzora said the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was
unwilling to fund the conference to
discuss the draft constitution before it
is submitted to Zimbabweans in a
referendum.
The UNDP that in 2009 funded the first constitutional
conference that was
marred by violent clashes between delegates fears the
second conference
scheduled for January and expected to cost US$2 million
could also
degenerate into violence, said Mwonzora.
“UNDP expressed
some reservations that they could not fund a process, which
was likely to be
marred by violence like what happened at the first all
stakeholders
conference. They argued that they could not sink over US$2
million into
violence,” said Mwonzora.
Mwonzora, representing Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai in the three-member
committee that chairs the COPAC, said violent
clashes between supporters of
the three ruling parties that have disrupted
public hearings on some key
Bills before Parliament could have also
convinced the UNDP that the
constitutional conference could go the same
way.
Mwonzora said the constitutional committee was looking for
alternative ways
to raise cash for the conference that he said was required
by law to be held
before the draft constitution is put before the
nation.
The constitution-making process is already running behind
schedule by
several months due to a host of problems including bickering
between Mugabe’s
ZANU PF party and the MDC over how to interpret public
submissions on the
new charter.
The proposed new constitution is part
of reforms agreed by Zimbabwe’s
coalition partners that are meant to
democratise the country’s politics.
The government is expected to call
fresh elections once a new constitution
is in place although there is no
legal requirement for it to do so.
Zimbabweans hope a new constitution
will guarantee human rights, strengthen
the role of Parliament and curtail
the president's powers, as well as
guaranteeing civil, political and media
freedoms. -- ZimOnline
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Bridget Mananavire, Staff Writer
Friday, 18
November 2011 13:50
HARARE - Constitution Select Committee (Copac)
has rebuffed reports by state
media that the MDC party tried to “smuggle”
the contentious gay rights
subject into the constitution.
The
allegations were splashed in various state-run newspapers.
The reports
alleged the MDC had tried to Nicodemously sneak in the gay
rights subject
into the constitution.
Party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has come under
severe attack and criticism
from the state media over his remarks concerning
alleged gay rights’
inclusion in the new constitution.
The MDC,
however, has set the record straight, claiming the party leader was
not
specifically referring to gay rights only but to what the party calls
“minority rights.”
Speaking at a press conference in Harare
yesterday, MDC Copac co-chairperson
Douglas Mwonzora said the reports were
false and outrageous and intended to
push certain propaganda.
“At no
time were gay rights discussed in the select committee. It was not
debated
in the select committee and it was not anyone’s intention to debate
those
rights.
“We find the article most unfortunate. We are writing a
constitution. We are
at a very delicate stage of the constitution making
process. It is not time
for propaganda. It is not time to politically malign
some of the actors
within Copac,” Mwonzora said.
Zanu PF’s Paul
Mangwana, who is one of the three Copac co-chairpersons,
backed Mwonzora
saying he was the one who had brought up the possible
inclusion of minority
rights.
He said: “To put the record straight, I am the one who said if he
had a
general provision of protection of minority rights without defining
what
minority is, we will find, in the process, there will be those who want
to
push for gay rights. Gays are a minority so they would want to seek for
protection under the law.
“I must put the record straight that he
(Mwonzora) did not mention anything
about gay rights,” Mangwana
said.
However, debate flared up during the press conference on how
minority groups
should be included in the constitution with Mwonzora saying
minority groups
should be given specific protection while Mangwana debated
that the
constitution should just try and protect rights of the individual
without
specification.
Copac said the final extraction of issues to
be included in the constitution
will be completed today.
In its
statement, Copac said: “The technical committee made up of
constitutional
experts is working on the final extraction of the finalissues
to be included
in the constitution.
This process is expected to be completed
tomorrow.
“Once the constitutional issues have been agreed, the process
of actual
drafting will commence,” the committee said.
After the
drafting, about $4,2 million will be needed for the second all
stakeholder
meeting which is not yet available to the committee.
Friday, 18 November 2011
President Tsvangirai will on Sunday
address thousands of MDC supporters at Chibuku Stadium, Chitungwiza at the MDC
Real Change Peace Rally. The Sunday rally had to be cancelled two weeks ago
after Zanu PF thugs were bussed into Chitungwiza Town by their senior party
officials and disrupted the event. Scores of MDC members were injured but no
Zanu PF youths have been arrested although some of them have been
identified.
The rally comes a week after the three main political
parties’ senior leaders held meeting in Harare and decisively denounced any form
of violence in the country and expressed abhorrence to it.
During last
week’s meeting President Tsvangirai said political contestation should not breed
enmity and all people must be alive to the fact that they are political
opponents and not enemies. “We are political protagonists and not foes,” he said
then.
President Tsvangirai who will be accompanied by the MDC national
leaders will talk on the state and health of the party and the operations of the
inclusive government in his capacity as the Prime Minister. He will also touch
on the issue of the Constitution-making process, the referendum; the next
watershed elections and introduce to the people the party’s new leadership that
was elected into office at the party’s 3rd National Congress held in Bulawayo in
May.
Several well attended MDC rallies have been held in other provinces
such as Harare, Bulawayo, Midlands North and South, Masvingo, Manicaland,
Mashonaland West and East and Matebeleland North.
The people’s
struggle for real change: Let’s finish it!!!
--
MDC Information
& Publicity Department
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Staff Writer
Friday, 18 November
2011 13:28
HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has lashed out
at some African
leaders for abandoning tenets of good governance and
democracy which they
preach to their people during liberation
wars.
Speaking in Morocco on Wednesday, Tsvangirai said most African
leaders have
abandoned the cause of the independence struggle and were now
behaving like
the colonisers they had fought.
“While we have raised
our own sovereign flags after independence, the new
leadership in Africa
betrayed the continent’s collective struggle and
inherited the same traits
and culture of impunity, corruption, repression,
mis-governance and personal
aggrandisement like those of the colonial
masters,” said
Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai, who joined politics in the late 1990s from the
Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the fight for a democratic
Africa should mark
an end to current repression of blacks by their fellow
black counterparts.
“We have had to wage a new struggle for democracy
against the former
nationalists who have perfected the same repression that
so many sons and
daughters of this continent fought against for almost a
century,” he said.
“There is renewed hope following the new government of
South Sudan. There is
some modicum of stability and a sense of
back-to-serious-business in the
Ivory Coast and a post-conflict Libya is now
settling down after several
months of internal conflict and 42 years of
one-man rule,” Tsvangirai said.
He added: “So I am positive about this
continent and its prospect for
democracy. I have often said that Africa is
the opportunity continent
because of its vast resources and its hospitable
and hard-working people,”
said Tsvangirai.
On the home front,
Tsvangirai said the Sadc-brokered coalition government
should be supported
to ensure that the will of the people prevails through
the holding of a free
and fair election.
This, he said, can only be achieved through the full
implementation of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA) which came about due
to Sadc’s insistence
and persistence.
“I urge you all to support Sadc
and the regional efforts in stabilising the
situation in Zimbabwe so that
the people in our country are allowed to
choose their own government without
violence and intimidation,” said the
premier.
“I call upon every one
of you to stand by us in this delicate moment. You
should all be aware that
we must all become global citizens ready to defend
peace and democracy
everywhere. The struggle in Zimbabwe is an
extra-ordinary struggle by
ordinary people keen to create a new culture and
a new country with new
values,” said Tsvangirai.
http://blogs.cfr.org/
Posted on Friday, November 18,
2011
by John Campbell
In the aftermath of Julius Malema’s
suspension from the African National
Congress, there is press speculation
that his allegedly close ties with
Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe’s
ZANU-PF played a role in turning the
party’s leadership against him.
Specifically, there are press whispers that
ZANU-PF was funding Malema to
undermine President Jacob Zuma’s mediation
efforts in Zimbabwe, which
included the ultimate goal of toppling him.
Many South Africans, not just
in the business community or among whites, see
parallels between Malema’s
calls for the nationalization of the mines and
seizure of white-owned land
and Mugabe’s policies in Zimbabwe. Like Mugabe,
Malema does not hesitate to
play the race card. And, again like Mugabe,
Malema is the voice of the poor
and marginalized. So, it’s no suprise that
there are whispers that he was
funded by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. Many South
Africans thought Malema funded his
flash lifestyle through access to
government contracts, but Zimbabwean
payoffs may have also helped.
In Zimbabwe, commentary on Malema’s
departure has been divided. Some
associated with ZANU-PF are critical of the
ANC, while those close to the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) tend to praise the ANC,
especially for the transparency of the process
by which Malema was
disciplined.
I have seen insufficient evidence to
be convinced that Malema was indeed on
Mugabe’s payroll. But, it is not
improbable. A ZANU-PF connection might also
account for the suprising unity
within the ANC, at least thus far, in
support of Malema’s suspension, but
that remains speculation.
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Friday, November 18th, 2011 at 10:18 am
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 18/11/11
The order by Zimbabwean Police to
Nevanji Madanhire, the Editor of The
Standard newspaper and reporter Nqaba
Matshazi to report at Harare Central
on Friday over an alleged criminal
defamation charge just two days after
they were arrested and bailed on a
similar charge is deplorable.
Zimbabwe is witnessing a new phase in the
abuse of defamation laws to settle
political scores against the independent
media and to silence coverage of
corruption cases ahead of elections in 2012
or whenever they will be held.
According to ARTICLE 19 which campaigns
for freedom of expression and
information worldwide, criminal defamation
laws are especially problematic
from the point of view of free
expression.
These laws can lead to the imposition of harsh sanctions,
such as a prison
sentence, suspension of the right to practise journalism or
a hefty fine.
For instance on 16 June 2000, three Standard journalists were
convicted on
charges of criminal defamation and fined Z$18,000 (US$473.68) a
lot of money
those days.
In April 2001, former Daily News editor
Geoffrey Nyarota and two of his
reporters, Nyaira and Zava, were charged
with criminal defamation.
Even if these laws applied with moderation,
criminal defamation laws still
cast a long shadow: the possibility of being
arrested by the police, held in
detention and subjected to a criminal trial
is stressful for a journalist
when deciding to expose, for instance a case
of high-level corruption.
Research conducted by ARTICLE 19 on the
statutes on defamation and insult in
SADC countries revealed that the use of
these laws has increased in some
countries over the recent years –
“especially in countries facing political
crisis or civil conflict” like
Zimbabwe.
From the assessment of some of the laws and practice governing
defamation
and insult in all SADC countries, ARTICLE 19 noted with concern
that the
provisions under which journalists are often charged were in
violation of
fundamental rights recognised by international standards on
freedom of
expression.
In its view, the imposition of custodial
penalties for defamation, and the
special protection afforded to senior
public officials against defamation or
insult, are unnecessary and prevent
debate on matters of public interest.
“These laws should be repealed to
allow free flow of information and ideas
in SADC,” ARTICLE 19 said in its
research report.
Similarly, international bodies such as the United
Nations and the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
have recognised
the threat posed by criminal defamation laws and have
recommended that they
should be abolished.
As if Zimbabwe did not
have enough oppressive laws, the Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA) and Public Order and
Security Act 2002 (POSA) the latter
of which imposes editorial control on
the media were
enacted.
Described by MISA as the leading weapon of the government and
Zanu-pf in
their ongoing campaign to stifle independent media reporting in
Zimbabwe,
AIPPA was crafted by the then information minister Jonathan
Moyo.
It is therefore critical that civil society bodies in Zimbabwe
vigorously
campaign for the abolition of Zimbabwe’s criminal defamation laws
like POSA,
AIPPA and others, if they treasure freedom of expression, of
course with
responsibility.
Car stickers inscribed: “Repeal POSA and
AIPPA Now” should clearly send a
message home.
Clifford Chitupa
Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com
http://www.cathybuckle.com
November 18, 2011, 1:14 pm
It was no surprise to hear the
Chinese Vice President lauding Robert Mugabe
as “a famed leader of the
national liberation movement in Africa and an old
friend whom the Chinese
people know well.” That was followed by the
announcement that China is to
invest in Zimbabwe’s mining industry and wants
to extend its farming
interests in the country. Western countries may have
turned their backs on
the Mugabe regime but China has jumped into the vacuum
and is ready to
invest in Zimbabwe. Will these Chinese investment projects
mean more jobs
for African people? Past experience suggests not. Curiously,
Zimbabwe’s
Indigenisation Act does not apply to Chinese citizens, though it
is hard to
see how they fit the definition of ‘indigenous’ as “any person
who prior to
1980 was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds
of
race”
China has a population estimated at 1.3 billion, 20% of the world’s
population. Zimbabwe has chosen to accept Chinese investment, knowing that
China generally remains silent about human rights and is unlikely to
criticise Zanu PF’s record in human rights. And that suits Zanu PF very
well; just this week Zimbabwe received 20.000 AK 47s from China. With such a
massive population to feed and clothe it is understandable that business
interests dominate Chinese foreign policy. And now, Zimbabwean industries
are about to receive yet another battering from cheap goods ‘Made in
China.’
Tendai Biti was due to present his 2012 budget this week but that
was
postponed because Mugabe was out of the country so we are yet to hear a
detailed account of how the Zimbabwean economy is prospering – or not.
Apparently all government business comes to a halt during Mugabe’s absences
which have been, for whatever reason, rather frequent this
year.
Meanwhile the CFU reports that the country is less prepared than it
has ever
been for the new farming season. The strongly worded report warns
that the
country is faced with real hunger if the farming sector continues
to be
unproductive. The ‘new farmers’ may have increased in number but,
without
seed or fertiliser, they are unlikely to be productive. With record
high
temperatures and widespread water shortages, the danger of diseases
such as
cholera and typhoid is never far away. The absence of clean water
and
washing facilities for people in urban areas already living in
unhygienic
and overcrowded conditions means that without stringent
precautions it is
surely only a matter of time before there is a full scale
epidemic. The
combination of hunger and disease is a fatal mix.
Zanu
PF have decided that their gathering in December is definitely a
conference
and not a congress. In this way, discussion of the leadership
issue has been
avoided. Rumours have been circulating that Zanu PF party
members are
uniting to get rid of Robert Mugabe. I find those rumours hard
to believe;
it would be a very brave man –or woman – who came out in the
open to
challenge Mugabe. It is much more likely that we will hear the usual
songs
of praise for the Dear Leader though it will be instructive to see how
the
Wiki-leakers are dealt with at the conference. The ‘leakers’ have been
promised a ‘roasting’- whatever that means! What is very clear as the Army
Chief of Staff and the Zanu PF Chairman Minister Khaya Moyo made plain this
week is that anyone attempting to remove Zanu PF from power will be
violently dealt with, though Zanu PF is against violence the Chairman
emphasised. That threat was certainly intended for the MDC but any action
against Mugabe himself whether from inside or outside Zanu PF would
presumably provoke the same violent reaction.
As we head towards the
year’s end, it seems that very little has changed in
Zimbabwe. The GNU has
clearly failed to bring about a peaceful
transformation: Zanu PF remains as
intolerant and intransigent as ever and
the MDC continues to bear the brunt
of violent attacks. While there is still
no agreement about the date of the
next election, no doubt the Chinese are
ready to step in and help their ‘Old
Friend’ steal yet another victory.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH.