FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
Diesel n’anga claims another scalp
REGISTAR-General Tobaiwa
Mu-dede faces potentially embarrassing obstruction
of justice charges for
allegedly harbouring Rotina Mavhunga, the Chinhoyi
spirit medium who duped
government officials to part with $5 billion after
claiming she could
conjure refined diesel from a rock.
A letter seen by The Financial
Gazette this week, written by the prosecutor’s
office in Chinhoyi to the
Harare Central Investigations Department’s
Homicide Division, directs the
police to investigate Mudede and to produce a
docket.
The letter is
copied to the Attorney General.
Court records seen by this paper also show
that in denying Mavhunga bail
last month, Chinhoyi magistrate Ngoni Nduna
questioned why Mudede had not
been charged for protecting a wanted
person.
On the day of judgment on the bail application, the officer
investigating
the case revealed for the first time that Mudede had shielded
Mavhunga from
arrest.
Up to that point, police had only referred to the
Registrar General as “a
high ranking government official”.
The records
show that the magistrate denied Mavhunga bail on account of her
links with
Mudede, whom he said could facilitate the woman’s escape.
Court papers also
show that the prosecutor, Herikiya Maromo, made an
application to have
Mavhunga’s state of mind ascertained in terms of the
Mental Health
Act.
The prosecutor said the accused might have a split personality, as
evidenced
by her use of a string of different identities - Rotina Mavhunga,
Nomatter
Tagarira and Changamire or Sekuru Dombo.
Defence lawyers opposed
the application, saying their client’s
constitutional rights were being
violated. The prosecution deferred the
application pending the determination
of the matter by the Supreme Court.
The Financial Gazette reported last week
how government plied Mavhunga with
$5 billion, a farm, and other services
while pursuing her claims that a rock
could produce diesel if she pointed
her “sacred stick at it.”
She faces allegations of fraud, or alternatively
charges under the Criminal
Law (Codification Reform) Act for being a
“criminal nuisance.”
According to the state, the saga began last year when
Mavhunga, and a group
of gold panners still at large, came across a
container of diesel at
Muningwa Hills in Chinhoyi after which they connived
to convince government
officials that it was flowing from a rock.
Many
speculate the diesel tank could have been left there in the years
leading up
to independence.
According to court records, Mavhunga connected a hose from
the container to
the foot of the hill, dazzling the gullible with mystical
incantations –
which must have been a signal to her sidekick to open a tap -
as the liquid
flowed.
However, when the diesel finally ran out, according
to court records,
Mavhunga would buy more from passing truckers to continue
her con.
“As a result of this misrepresentation by the accused, the whole
country’s
interests and government interests at large resulted in the
government of
Zimbabwe committing human and material resources into the
issue, which later
turned out to be false,” court papers say.
“As a
result of this misrepresentation, the accused unlawfully solicited and
received food, money, services, a farmhouse and a farm from the government
of Zimbabwe, knowing well that her claims were false.”
So convinced was
government, that it sent in three different teams of senior
officials to
secure what they must have believed was the solution to years
of fuel
shortages.
The first team comprised State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa,
Defence
Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi. A
second
team was made up of Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya, Science and
Technology
Minister Olivia Muchena and Mines Minister Amos Midzi.
Yet
another committee, led by deputy Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga, and
including security forces, government officials, supposed academics and
traditional leaders, had also once been rushed to the site.
Government’s
n’anga shame has blown the lid on how deep the belief in
superstition and
sorcery among the country’s political leaders runs.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube
Political Editor
MORGAN Tsvangirai has called a special meeting of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) national executive on Saturday as he
battles to
manage the fallout from his decision to disband his faction’s
women’s
assembly.
Insiders at Harvest House, the headquarters of the
Tsvangirai camp of the
MDC, said yesterday differences persisted despite the
election of a new
women’s executive in Bulawayo at the weekend.
Theresa
Makone, the wife of Ian Makone, the faction’s secretary for
elections,
replaced Lucia Matibenga, the former head of the women’s
assembly.
The
sources said the divisions were so serious that Tsvangirai had embarked
on a
nationwide “meet the grassroots” tour to placate restive constituents
disillusioned by his leadership.
Tsvangirai has since Monday held
meetings with provincial assemblies in
Chitungwiza, Kwekwe, Gweru and
Bulawayo.
According to a schedule seen by The Financial Gazette, he will have
met
assembly committees in all 10 provinces by the end of the day tomorrow
in
time for a potentially explosive national executive committee meeting in
Harare at the weekend.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Tsvangirai
faction, confirmed the MDC
leader had been on a drive to meet “grassroots
structures”.
He said a national executive meeting was scheduled for Saturday
“to discuss
critical issues affecting the party and the nation.”
Said
Chamisa: “Saturday will give the party leadership from all the
provinces the
perfect platform to reflect and debate on critical issues
affecting the
party and the country.”
“The MDC, as a democratic institution, has sufficient
mechanisms to deal
with both internal and external challenges that are
fairly inevitable in
such a mass-based organisation,” said Chamisa.
MDC
insiders say on top of the agenda of Saturday’s meeting, is the emotive
issue of the ouster of Matibenga, a founding member of the party.
On
Tuesday, Sekai Holland, a senior and founding MDC official, alleged in a
statement that Tsvangirai was presiding over the isolation of
women.
Holland said initially there were 10 women in senior positions as
proposed
by the Women’s Assembly after the March 2006 Congress, but after
the MDC
abolished deputy secretary portfolios, “four articulate, solid
professional
women,” had been lost, leaving only two females out of 15
shadow ministers.
The election of the new women’s executive in Bulawayo was
characterised by
clashes between Matibenga’s supporters and those of her
rivals.
Lovemore Moyo, interim chairman of the Tsvangirai camp who oversaw
the
elections, alleged the violence could be attributed to people bussed in
to
disrupt the proceedings despite a High Court order authorising the
polls.
How he handles the latest controversy will be a litmus test for
Tsvangirai,
whose party has been weakened since the October 2005 split and
faces the
threat of further division just months ahead of crucial national
elections.
The opposition has been at its weakest since its failure to reach
a pact
earlier this year to contest elections as a coalition.
The party
split into two factions over participation in senate elections.
Although
Tsvangirai led a group that supported a boycott of the elections,
it
ironically now faces infighting over its support for the 18th Amendment,
which expands the senate.
Apart from the Matibenga controversy, the
meeting on Saturday will also
deliberate on the SADC mediation process,
escalating violence against
opposition supporters and the worsening economic
crisis.
“By far the most critical issue is the deteriorating economic
conditions and
suffering of the average Zimbabwean due to the high cost of
basic
commodities, as well as the violence against ordinary party members
and
civic groups in relation to the dialogue taking place in South Africa,”
Chamisa said.
The opposition has been angered by President Robert
Mugabe’s denial of
charges of the perpetration of violence against his
opponents.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
ZANU
PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) could, as
early
as this weekend, announce further agreement on key constitutional
reforms,
including limited presidential terms and amendments to media and
security
laws, sources involved in the talks said this week.
As a deadline set by
the mediator, South African president Thabo Mbeki, for
the completion of the
talks elapsed yesterday, sources privy to the talks
reported that a deal was
on the cards and could be announced as early as
this weekend.
Mbeki had
set an October 31 deadline for the conclusion of the current phase
of the
negotiating process, before he could present a report to the Southern
African Development Community by the first week of this month.
The
regional bloc appointed him to the role of mediator in March after
political
tensions increased and outrage was expressed globally following
the
battering of dozens of opposition leaders, including Morgan Tsvangirai,
the
MDC leader.
Negotiators from ZANU PF — Nicholas Goche and Patrick Chinamasa —
and
Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti representing the MDC, left for Pretoria
on
Tuesday morning for meetings to conclude the talks.
After much
haggling and heated debate over the past six months, it is
understood the
parties are now close to agreeing on a draft constitution
whose key features
would include a Bill of Rights and the limiting of
presidential tenure to a
maximum of two terms of five years each.
On the electoral front, the ruling
party has flatly rejected proportional
representation, and seems to have had
its way by rejecting the MDC’s demand
for Zimbabweans in the Diaspora,
estimated to be about four million, to be
allowed to vote.
The MDC’s call
for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to be
re-constituted in time for
next year’s elections has also yielded the
desired result. Although the
crucial delimitation committee – previously
picked directly by President
Robert Mugabe - has been hived off into the ZEC
under amendments agreed in
September, the MDC accuses the commission of bias
towards ZANU PF.
But
the MDC believes, according to insiders, that it has won an important
battle
by forcing through a limit on presidential terms.
The party apparently
believes a limit on terms will eventually compel
President Mugabe to leave
office.
“The MDC (both factions) feels it has won something by forcing ZANU
PF to
agree on the limitation of presidential powers and a new Bill of
Rights,”
said an opposition party insider.
This would rekindle debate
that took place in 2000, when a state-sponsored
constitutional draft carried
provisions imposing a two-term cap on
presidential terms.
Had government
not been defeated in the subsequent constitutional
referendum, President
Mugabe could not have stood for a fresh term in 2002,
legal experts said at
the time.
Also expected to have been agreed at the end of the latest talks
yesterday
were significant media law reforms — the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) -
which the MDC alleges unfairly restrict the opposition’s access to public
media and infringe on freedom of expression.
It is understood ZANU PF
negotiators have agreed that there is no need for
statutory regulation of
the media, but that this should instead be
undertaken by a “voluntary media
council” that, however, would still be
accountable to the Minister of
Information and Publicity.
The talks also included discussions on the death
penalty, sources say, with
ZANU PF rejecting the MDC’s proposal for its
abolition, saying capital
punishment had no place in a democratic
society.
However, the two parties are still deadlocked on demands by ZANU PF
that the
MDC campaign for the lifting of Western sanctions imposed on
President
Mugabe and scores of members of his government and
party.
“There has been deadlock on the issue of sanctions. The MDC has stated
categorically that it has no powers to have these revoked, as the sanctions
were put in place by Western or European parliaments,” said one person
familiar with the negotiating process.
Although there was concern that
the deadline had passed with no public
announcement on a firm agreement,
Tsvangirai’s senior foreign policy advisor
Elphas Mukonoweshuro said the
importance of the talks mean this was less
about deadlines than it was about
“ensuring that agreed positions are
understood by all sides and that they
will not be revisited. In the course
of discussions it has become apparent
that they cannot be rushed to meet the
deadline.”
Biti is expected to
report back on the talks to the Tsvangirai faction
during its national
executive committee meeting on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Gorden Moyo, executive
director of pressure group Bulawayo
Agenda, told The Financial Gazette that
AIPPA and POSA he believes could be
amended by the beginning of next month
so that President Mugabe can take a
“trophy” to the European Union-African
Caribbean and Pacific countries
summit in Lisbon and show the world that his
government is transforming.
Several EU countries have threatened to boycott
the summit if President
Mugabe is allowed to attend. African countries have,
on the other hand,
insisted they will not attend the summit if President
Mugabe is barred.
“The amendments will not be about real change,” Moyo said.
“(President)
Mugabe wants to tell the world that there are African solutions
to African
problems. He wants to tell the world that he is transforming so
that the
international community can lift sanctions on Zimbabwe.”
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter
INFORMATION Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu says Media and
Information Commission
(MIC) chairperson Tafataona Mahoso, who was declared
to be biased by the
courts, would not preside over an application by The
Daily News for
registration.
On Tuesday, Ndlovu reconstituted the MIC
board, retaining two members from
the previous outfit - Mahoso and Pascal
Mukondiwa - and announcing five new
members, Chinondidyachii Mararike,
Charity Sally Moyo, Edward Dube, Tendai
Chari and Ngugi wa Mirii.
Mahoso
and Mukondiwa were part of the previous board, which according to a
number
of court rulings, could no longer be trusted to handle an application
by the
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), for the registration of its
two
banned titles, The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday.
"He (Mahoso) will
not preside over the case. The MIC has a lot else to do
besides The Daily
News issue, and he is doing that work tremendously well,"
Ndlovu said
yesterday.
Asked by The Financial Gazette how he intends to deal with the
newspaper's
case, Ndlovu said he would make a public announcement at the
right time.
"Wait, the time will come. He (Mahoso) can recuse himself and the
other
members can deal with the matter. We are totally in agreement with the
court
judgment (on Mahoso's bias). I am a law-abiding citizen and I will not
go
against decisions made by the courts," Ndlovu said.
A 2005 Supreme
Court ruling said the MIC could not hear the newspaper's case
because of
Mahoso's bias against the ANZ. And in a further judgment
delivered in May
this year, High Court judge Justice Anne-Marie Gowora
specifically said
Mahoso could not preside over the matter.
The judge said she was surprised
that despite the 2005 ruling by the Supreme
Court that remarks made by
Mahoso prior to the hearing of the ANZ
application could have created
apprehension in the minds of any reasonable
person that justice would not be
served, the Minister of Information had not
made any effort to put in place
a separate legal structure that would permit
the application to be heard and
determined by an impartial body.
The judge said: "The commission's chairman,
having been found wanting by the
Supreme Court, has been effectively
disabled from determining any further
applications involving the applicant."
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda
Staff Reporter
ZANU PF legal secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa has poured
water on debate over
President Robert Mugabe's succession by declaring that
the President will
not face a challenge to his leadership at the ruling
party's extraordinary
congress in December.
Mnangagwa has also
defended Jabulani Sibanda, the controversial war
veterans' leader regarded
as his ally, saying the former Zanu PF chairman
for Bulawayo province's
status in the ruling party may only be discussed in
2009.
Mnangagwa, who
is acting Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, told The
Financial Gazette after a central committee meeting held
at the ZANU PF
Headquarters in Harare last week that the special congress in
December would
endorse only President Mugabe.
"In terms of the ZANU PF constitution, we have
to convene the extraordinary
session of congress that will deal only with
matters for which it will have
been convened. There are legal issues that
have been arising in the party
and that is what we are going to address at
congress," Mnangagwa said.
"We had a congress in 2004, and our next congress
was supposed to be in
2009, but in between the congresses, we have this
extraordinary congress,
which is necessary in order to declare the President
of the party elected at
the last congress as the party's candidate. That
candidate will be endorsed
in December."
In addition to confirming
President Mugabe's candidacy, the December
conference will also ratify
Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Number 18,
passed by parliament in August
with the support of the Movement for
Democratic Change. The amendment merges
the electoral calendar, scheduling
presidential, senatorial, parliamentary
and local government elections on
the same day.
Mnangagwa said the
central committee did not discuss suspended Zimbabwe
National War Veterans
Association chairman Sibanda, and congress was
unlikely to hear matters
pertaining to the controversy.
"Comrade Sibanda is not on our agenda. As far
as I am concerned he had a
dismissal confirmed by the central committee but
he made an appeal to an ad
hoc disciplinary committee of the party. His
lodging of the appeal suspends
the effect of the expulsion. His case will
only be dealt with at the normal
ZANU PF congress in 2009," said
Mnangangwa.
He said he was not aware of any duties that Sibanda had been
conducting on
behalf of ZANU PF.
"As far I am concerned, he is a leader
of a war veterans' welfare
organisation registered under the Ministry of
Labour and Social Welfare,"
said Mnangangwa.
But Sibanda has, in the name
of ZANU PF, been holding marches throughout the
country to push for
President Mugabe's endorsement as the party's candidate
in next year's
elections.
Sibanda's sensational return to the ruling party has angered
senior party
officials who have demanded an explanation from President
Mugabe on why the
controversial war veterans' leader was conducting the
campaign when he was
expelled from ZANU PF.
FinGaz
Clemence Manyukwe Staff
reporter
A TOP law officer who prosecuted Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa has been
acquitted on corruption charges after Harare magistrate,
Peter Kumbawa,
ruled that the state had failed to prove its case against
him.
Kumbawa acquitted Levison Chikafu, the Manicaland Area prosecutor on
Monday,
without putting him on his defence on the grounds that at the close
of its
submissions, the state had failed to establish a prima facie case
against
him.
Thirteen witnesses, including Mutare magistrate Billiard
Musakwa, prosecutor
Mike Tembo and businessman Hlanganiso Matangaidze gave
testimony in the
case.
Chikafu, who was represented by the president of
the Law Society of
Zimbabwe, Beatrice Mtetwa, was arrested in April this
year on allegations of
receiving bribes.
At the time, Chikafu told The
Financial Gazette that he was being victimised
for having prosecuted
Chinamasa and calling for the arrest of National
Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa in connection with a 2004 political
violence case.
This week,
Chikafu said: "I feel betrayed by some of my colleagues at the
Attorney
General's office. They accused me of being aligned to the (Vice
President
Joice) Mujuru faction." Turning to whether he would remain in the
Attorney
General's office, he said he would make a decision after meeting
his
superiors.
Chikafu shot to prominence last year after he led a series of
legal
proceedings against political heavyweights when other prosecutors
shied
away.
He ruffled Mutasa's feathers at one point when he said in
court that the
Minister's "wings must be clipped".
Last year, Chikafu
wrote to the police, directing them to investigate four
Cabinet Ministers
accused of stripping the once lucrative Kondozi Estate of
farming
equipment.
In the latest case he was handling, he had been pushing for the
arrest of a
Central Intelligence Organisation operative, Joseph Mwale, the
alleged
mastermind in the killing of two aides of opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in the violent run- up to the 2000 general election.
FinGaz
Staff
Reporter
POLICE recruits are now required to undergo national service
training before
they can be enlisted into the force, The Financial Gazette
established this
week, as Parliament heard of a dismal financial crisis in
the Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP).
Recruits who underwent police
training at Ntabazinduna near Bulawayo
beginning in May were told that in
order to secure employment, they needed
to produce a national service
training certificate.
Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri however, said it was
not the force's policy
to demand national service certificates from
recruits.
The police are said to be recruiting every month, although deputy
police
commissioner William Sibanda told the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on
Defence and Home Affairs that the ZRP is struggling to buy
uniforms for its
recruits.
"There is a serious shortage of uniforms. We
cannot buy shorts and T-shirts
and people are having to be trained in their
own clothes," said Sibanda.
He was giving testimony on whether police were
prepared for elections next
year.
But even amid the financial crisis, new
recruits are still filing in.
The recruits from Ntabazinduna maintained they
were told that all trainees
who had not undergone national youth service
training would be required do
so if they are to graduate after their police
training.
"The majority of recruits went for national service. Less than 20
recruits
had not and were told last month that they will only graduate after
going
for national service," a recruit said.
Police training takes six
months, while the duration of national service is
three months.
A
parliamentary report on the national youth service training programme
tabled
in June recommended the temporary closure of youth camps, saying
legislators
had been "horrified" by the living conditions there.
The report was compiled
after tours of the national youth service centres
and vocational training
centres by members of the youth and gender
parliamentary committee, chaired
by ZANU PF Gutu South Member of Parliament
(MP) Shuvai Mahofa.
FinGaz
Stanley Kwenda Staff
Reporter
"IF anyone tries to remove President Robert Mugabe from power,
we will march
in the streets and we are prepared to remove our clothes in
support of his
candidature in next year's elections," said Oppah Muchinguri,
leader of ZANU
PF women's league at a meeting held at the party's Harare
headquarters early
this year.
Now that President Mugabe has all but
secured his nomination as the party's
presidential candidate in next year's
elections the public has,
disappointingly, been deprived of the chance to
see Muchinguri and her band
of backers express their support for the veteran
politician in the
threatened colourful manner.
After securing
endorsements from the ZANU PF central committee and the
politburo last
month, President Mugabe has taken the sting out of the ruling
party's
December extraordinary congress, which had been expected to be
explosive.
ZANU PF women's league, just like the war veterans, is a
useful cog in the
party's scheme of things.
In 2004 the league was used
to block Rural Housing Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa's ascendancy into the
presidium by throwing its weight behind
Joice Mujuru.
Gender activists
had applauded the ZANU PF wing at the time for awakening
from deep slumber
to campaign for critical positions in the party's
structures.
Events of
recent months have, however, sent confusing signals amid concern
that
Muchinguri and her followers might have lost the plot along the way.
The ZANU
PF women's league's seemingly fanatical support for continued male
dominance
ahead of the December extraordinary congress represents a
dichotomy in what
the grouping aspires for.
Its declaration of support for President Mugabe is
a smack in the face for
Vice President Mujuru whose appointment to the
number two spot was once
touted by the league as a victory and proud
achievement for the wing.
Naturally, one would have expected the women's
league to throw its weight
behind its trailblazing torchbearer but
alas.
When Mujuru was appointed vice president in 2005, she exuded confidence
and
presented a picture of someone capable of carrying the weight of the
country
on her shoulders.
Her elevation occurred at about the same time
that South African President,
Thabo Mbeki, appointed Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
as vice president, replacing
Jacob Zuma, who was facing corruption
allegations.
Mujuru's rise had sparked debate on whether Zimbabwe was ready
for a female
president, and whether Mujuru was the right candidate.
But
three years down the line, the same constituency that backed Mujuru
appears
to have had a change of heart at the least expected time.
What has happened
to make the league change its mind and ignore the
crusading call to "support
other women" for elective office that is often
made by Muchinguri?
Is it
not too odd for the same women that clamoured for increased female
representation in the corridors of power at a ZANU PF Women's League
national congress held in 2004 to now turn their backs on Mujuru?
The
league's preparedness to take a retrogressive step by accepting a return
to
the pre-2004 scenario of an all-male presidency raises questions about
its
commitment to its declared determination to fight for gender
equality.
Undoubtedly, feeling betrayed, and abandoned by her comrades,
Mujuru has
been obliged to seek support mainly from the business community,
a move that
is unlikely to improve her chances of making it to the
top.
Despite some deep-seated divisions and petty jealousies within the
women's
league, it is by far the largest constituency within ZANU PF
followed by the
youth league and the war veterans.
The big question to
ask is whether these women have used their clout
appropriately to influence
the outcome of the succession issue in the
direction they have
chosen.
The league's unexplained U-turn on the prospects of a woman president
inevitably leads to questions of the calibre of its members and whether they
are independent thinkers ready to take the bull by the horns on matters of
principle.
The impression set so far is that the women's league is being
used as pawns
in political games still dominated by men.
Despite the
valid argument that women comprise the majority in Zimbabwe and
therefore,
are entitled to a greater say in national affairs, by letting an
opportunity
to put this into practice slip through their fingers, they have
set the
clock back many years.
Now, with their credibility dented, they will have to
go back to the drawing
board and start afresh to argue for a dispensation
that they had won.
"There is no doubt women are capable of leading but they
suffer from
intra-party dynamics and politics. The processes are not open;
there is just
no intra-party democracy. However, women need to support each
other and try
to clear their way and rise above cosmetic positions. If a
woman is in high
office, that position should be protected," said Rindai
Chipfunde, Zimbabwe
Election Support Network national director.
"The
party's policies lack quotas to promote equal representation. They do
not
favour women, campaigning for key positions needs funding, and usually
funds
are channelled to campaigns for male characters."
Petty and unnecessary power
struggles have apparently been allowed to cause
women to lose sight of the
big picture.
There seems to be a rivalry between Mujuru and Muchinguri, the
two most
powerful women in the party.
In September, at a ZANU PF women's
league meeting in Plumtree, Muchinguri
was quoted as threatening to push for
the ouster of Mujuru.
The bad blood between the two leaders is, according to
speculation within
ZANU PF circles, a consequence of the emergence of
various camps jostling
for positions in the succession battle.
Mujuru and
Muchinguri are said to belong to different factions.
Muchinguri was reported
to have taken an apparent swipe at Mujuru, accusing
her indirectly of being
preoccupied with the struggle to succeed President
Mugabe at the expense of
espousing women's issues.
Muchinguri said: "There are some women that we put
on top to represent women's
interests and needs but they have failed and
continue to be linked to coup
plots and the succession issue every day. We
will ask them to step down at
the coming party congress in December."
But
if Muchinguri's threats are to be taken seriously, will another woman
candidate rise up to take over from Mujuru, or even President Mugabe in the
future?
The field of hopefuls, however, is not too impressive.
A close
look at these leading female politicians reveals that all of them
owe their
positions to President Mugabe.
Edna Madzongwe is regarded as the second most
powerful woman in Zimbabwe
after Mujuru. She is a Mugabe loyalist appointed
to head the controversial
Senate as a way to buttress the veteran Zimbabwean
leader's grip on power.
Madzongwe swapped the deputy speaker of Parliament
post she had held since
1995 for the senate presidency in 2005. She served
two years as deputy
minister of education from 1993. Before that, she was a
Member of Parliament
(MP) for Mhondoro in Mashonaland West.
But despite
her celebrated background, her political muscle is yet to be
felt. So far,
she has seemed to stand out only because of her farm seizures
in the Chegutu
area.
Thenjiwe Lesabe was once regarded as the "iron lady" of ZANU PF
politics,
and at one time touted as a possible successor to the late "father
Zimbabwe"
Vice President Joshua Nkomo.
But since the Tsholotsho debacle -
she would have been one of the two vice
presidents under a structure pushed
for by the Mnangagwa faction - she has
been pushed into
obscurity.
Abigail Damasane, the deputy minister of Women's Affairs, has been
carving
for herself a place in ZANU PF politics through her enthusiastic
praise
singing and dancing.
She, however, does not seem to have the kind
of profile to rise above a
ministerial post and make it to the
top.
Muchinguri, though, remains the strongest contender for Mujuru's post.
She
has strong liberation struggle credentials and has been an MP since
1980.
In spite of the political shenanigans, it is a fact that women continue
to
be under-represented in decision-making positions since
independence.
The barriers to women's equal representation are many and stem
from poverty,
cultural values and practices, the burden of caring
responsibilities and the
political cultures and structures.
Despite these
barriers and constraints however, the crucial question is
still whether
there are enough women of the right calibre to make a
difference in the way
the country is governed
FinGaz
Africa File with Mavis
Makuni
The presentation of the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Foundation Award for
good
governance in Africa to Mozambique's former head of state, Joachim
Chissano
last week, is bound to revive debate across the continent on
whether those
leaders already set in their corrupt, murderous and tyrannical
ways can be
swayed by monetary incentives to turn over a new
leaf.
Chissano received the award during an Africa Governance Forum in
Burkina
Faso where heads of state in Africa were challenged to address the
issues of
transparency, legitimacy and participation. Leaders in attendance
were
Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore, Rwandan President Paul Kagame
and
the Prime Minister of Algeria Abdelaziz Belkhadem. The leaders
participated
in a dialogue under the theme, "Building the Capable State in
Africa", with
representatives of civil society, journalists and business
leaders from 30
countries.
"The Ougadougou Summit is for us an
opportunity to remind the international
community about the importance of
additional support to accelerate progress
towards the Millennium Development
Goals", Compaore, the president of the
host country told delegates. Kagame,
who hosted last year's edition of the
Forum remarked that the region had
made considerable progress, recording
rising economic growth rates,
increasing democratic space for civil society
and the media and holding
democratic elections.
"The creation of the capable state in Africa is long
overdue. These
discussions have been going on for a long time. It is now
time to translate
these discussions into actions", Kagame said.
The
presence of former Mozambican president Chissano must have given the
Forum a
particular dimension, because after receiving the inaugural award
for good
governance, he personified the kind of African leader needed to
translate
the important themes the delegates deliberated on into actions
beneficial to
the people.
Receiving the accolade on October 24, Chissano said the time for
military
juntas and life presidencies was over and leaders must embrace
globally
accepted democratic principles. The former Mozambican head of
state, who
chairs the African Forum, which consists of former heads of
state, said
these elder statesmen were vehemently opposed to
dictatorships.
"Increasingly African states have renounced the culture of
military and
single party rule and presidency for life. I stand before you
as clear
testimony to the emergence of this political form of governance."
It must
have taken considerable courage for Chissano to utter those words
while
enjoying the hospitality of a man who could be said to be guilty of
some of
the ills he deplored.
Compaore, who has been in power for 20
years, came to power after a coup in
which his predecessor, Thomas Sankara,
was killed. He won a fresh term after
a landslide victory in 2005, meaning
that by the time he completes his
current term he will have been in power
for 27 years.
The destiny of Togo, a country that shares a border with
Burkina Faso, has
been in the hands of one family for the past 40 years.
Current president,
Fuare Gnassingbe succeeded his father, Gnassingbe
Eyadema, who died in 2005
after being in control as head of state for 38
years.
Chissano and other leaders opposed to dictatorships and life
presidencies
are not likely to win the favour of many heads of state in
their bid to
drive home the message of the need for a new style of
leadership in Africa.
A list of the 25 longest serving leaders in the world (
excluding those who
are deceased) compiled by The Weekend Economist, is
dominated by presidents
and prime ministers from Africa.
Out of the 25
names on the list, 16 are African heads of state and only nine
are from the
rest of the world. The African line-up is headed by Omar Bongo
of Gabon, who
has been in power for 40 years followed by Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi of Libya
who has clocked 38 years.
The next rung consists of Jose Eduardo dos Santos
of Angola and Teodoro
Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guniea who have been in
power for 28 years.
They are followed by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe
with 27 years under
his belt, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak (26 years) and Paul Biya
of Cameroon whose
tally is 25 years.
The rest, whose incumbencies have
lasted between 16 and 21 years are Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda; King Mswati
III of Swaziland, Blaise Compaore of Burkina
Faso; Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
of Tunisia; Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan,
Idriss Derby of Chad; Meles
Zenawi of Ethiopia and Isaias Afewerki of
Eritrea. From the foregoing, it
can be seen that the number of leaders who
are reluctant to leave power
voluntarily is still very high and it is
debatable what impact Mo Ibrahim's
awards will have.
When the Egyptian-born tycoon first mooted the idea of
rewarding African
heads of state for good governance and as an incentive for
them to
relinquish power voluntarily, it received the enthusiastic
endorsement of
former South African president Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan,
immediate past
secretary general of the United Nations ands ex United States
president,
Bill Clinton. Some observers however, expressed reservations
about the
potential for such a scheme to influence corrupt leaders who are
already
filthy rich from stealing from their nations' coffers.
"The
people who are doing badly and are killing their own people or stealing
state resources are going to carry on doing it", Paul Smith of Africa
Confidential was quoted as saying. Other observers noted that the prize
money offered by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation was "peanuts" to some of Africa's
corrupt dictators who have driven their countries to penury by regarding
them as personal fiefdoms. These are leaders who are accountable to no one
and who have imposed a culture of impunity.
And given the prevalence of
dictatorships and authoritarian rule, which have
retarded development and
puaperised the populations of many African
countries, the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation is likely to rapidly run out of
candidates who genuinely deserve
to be rewarded. Given this scenario,
Chissano's declaration in Burkina Faso
that African states have renounced
military and one-party rule seems
somewhat over-optimistic. It seems he will
have to do more across the length
and breadth of Africa if as the first
recipient of the Mo Ibrahim award, he
is to be seen as its ambassador and
drive the good governance message home
to incumbent leaders who have already
more than exceeded the generally
accepted two-term limit in office.
FinGaz
Personal Glimpses with
Mavis Makuni
I had a good laugh recently upon discovering that a young
colleague had
bought a loaf of bread in a bar at four times its gazetted
prize.
All this emerged after I had remarked on the grocery items on his
desk,
which included a packet of margarine, with a view to establishing
where he
had found them.
It was in the course of explaining where he had
stumbled upon each item that
he described how after a long time of not
eating bread, he could not believe
his luck when he found it being sold in a
bar. It is an unmistakable sign
that things are not normal when small talk
revolves around the trials and
tribulations of sourcing basic commodities. I
have been stopped by perfect
strangers countless times when I have walked
down a street holding a scarce
commodity such as cooking oil, sugar or milk.
They all wanted to know where
I had got the stuff so that they could rush
there too. I have in turn often
found myself stopping perfect strangers to
make similar enquiries about
items they were holding.
Information and
Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu announced at the end of
September that
by the end of October, Zimbabweans would be able to shop
normally once again
after the anarchy and disappearance of goods sparked by
the government's
crackdown against the business community during which it
imposed an
arbitrary pricing regime that did not take any economic
fundamentals into
consideration. Ndlovu said supermarket shelves that had
become empty would
be overflowing with goods once more. His pronouncements
have proved to be
untrue.
Shopping for basic commodities still calls for the patience of Job
and the
investigative skills of a secret agent. Patience means that if you
have no
meal-mealie and your family is starving, you should soldier on
indefinitely
until the day you join a long, winding queue of similarly
desperate
householders outside a supermarket in the hope of being lucky
enough to get
a packet. Minister Ndlovu can argue that things have
"improved" and store
shelves are groaning under new stocks but that does not
quite tally with the
realities on the ground.
I have entered supermarkets
with shelves stacked with nothing but potato
crisps, dried vegetables
(mufushwa) tea leaves, maputi or bars of soap. The
shelves look full alright
but consumers need a normal variety of basic
foodstuffs.
Families cannot
subsist on patato crisps, maputi or ice cream. They need
proper foods such
as bread, meal mealie, milk, meat , rice etc. It is no use
for the
authorities to pretend that things have normalised when they are
still dire
and people are suffering. The price war has done nothing to ease
the plight
of ordinary Zimbabweans as government declared it would.
Instead, the
crackdown has made things much worse than anyone would have
imagined four
months ago. Not only can basic goods not be found on a
regular, reliable
basis but when they appear once in a blue moon, the prices
are stratospheric
- not affordable as the government vehemently declared
they would be after
its crackdown. It is the same consumers that the
government claimed to be
rescuing from exploitation by unscrupulous and
unpatriotic businesspeople
who now have to shoulder the burden of costs
passed on as firms try to
re-captalise.
The firms were bankrupted by the decree on prices, which was
big news when
it was imposed but about whose disastrous consequences very
little is now
heard. The starving population needs to know what the
government is doing to
restore a modicum of normalcy. It is not sustainable
for whole families to
live on snacks and food from the takeaway sections of
supermarkets where a
small portion of sadza and meat or sausage costs almost
a million dollars.
How many meals can an average worker have at that
price?
A few shops are genuinely full of goods from South Africa, which cost
an arm
and a leg. One wonders if this is what Ndlovu had in mind when he
announced
that shops would once gain be full. A big problem with our
authorities is
their nonchalance when dealing with situations affecting the
generality of
the people. They ignore the truth and speak as though they
live on another
planet. This imperviousness is immoral and inexcusable when
bread and butter
issues affecting the masses are at stake.
The Member of
Parliament for Gokwe-Chireya, Leonard Chikomba was quoted in
yesterday's
issue of a state newspaper hailing the government's efforts to
"stabilize"
prices. "The consumers , who had suffered under (sic) the hands
of
unscrupulous businesspeople, who willfully increased prices of
commodities
beyond the reach of the majority of the people, feel relieved,"
he said.
Does the legislator and all others who wear the same blinkers know
what they
are talking about when they recite these insensitive mantras?
The government
may have embarked on the "price war" in the hope of
disproving some
projections on inflation that it found threatening as Ndlovu
once admitted,
but it sacrificed the welfare of consumers in the process.
The government
needs to acknowledge that its intervention has backfired and
come up with
long-term strategies to remedy the situation. It is a
dereliction of duty
for the government to pretend that all is well when its
actions have caused
untold suffering for the people, which is becoming more
unbearable by the
day. This is not an issue that can be swept under the
carpet.
-email: mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw
FinGaz
Comment
IN his biography of
Sir Peter Carew -a controversial figure in the Tudor
re-conquest of Ireland,
John Hooker coined the adage; "the more cooks, the
worse
potage".
While Hooker lived 150 years ago, his rendition of the popular
ancient
proverb, "too many cooks spoil the broth," rings true for
Zimbabwe.
The country's broth has not only been spoilt by its many cooks but
has
become poisoned in the process.
One cannot help but conclude that the
duplicity of the many public officers
driving the country's economic agenda
is driving business into the ground.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had
last month laid a foundation upon
which industry's revival was to be
anchored after a thoughtless price slash
directive had emptied supermarkets
shelves.
And when industry was beginning to set its manufacturing processes
in motion
in response to the RBZ measures, which are aimed at stimulating
production,
a chorus of disapproval has emerged from some sections of
government that
might put off track the central bank's efforts.
The
discord within government's policy implementing agencies is nauseating
to
say the least and the silence from the powers-that-be can be taken to
mean a
tacit endorsement of actions undermining the elusive social contract
in
particular and economic revival initiatives in general.
This week, Godwills
Masimirembwa, whatever that means, began his tenure at
the National Incomes
and Pricing Commission (NIPC) breathing fire and
brimstone.
A
lawyer-cum-consultant, Masimirembwa renewed familiar threats of sterner
action against "errant" manufacturers indexing prices at official, oops,
illegal parallel market rates.
The new NIPC chairman has quickly struck
the official line, claiming there
are companies trying to hold government at
ransom by applying for price
adjustments that are based on exchange rates
obtaining on the parallel
market.
Masimirembwa said the commission cares
not about where manufacturers access
their foreign currency requirements,
adding the only source of hard currency
he knew was the official
market.
That, coming from a man who has already requested for additional
manpower to
bolster the NIPC's compliance teams, points to more dark days
for the local
industry whose capacity utilisation has never been this
bad.
With industry still gasping for breath after being squeezed hard by the
June
price blitz, unorthodox methods of fighting the inflation monster could
easily undo the RBZ's efforts.
It is no secret that foreign currency
inflows into the country have suffered
a heavy knock after the previous
backers of the country's stop-go economic
reforms pulled the plug on Harare
citing its intransigence on policy
prescriptions.
The demise of
agriculture, tourism and more recently the uncertainty in the
mining sector
precipitated by the impeding empowerment laws has meant that
the little
foreign currency trickling into the official purse has to be
channelled
towards critical sectors, primarily health and energy.
To keep the country
going, the consumers of this scarce resource who cannot
meet the grade are
scrounging for it on the parallel market. It is this
ingenuity that has
sustained the country's economy to this day.
It would be suicidal to attempt
to drive an economic revival programme from
Masimirembwa's pedestal.
A
thriving parallel market will continue to coexist with the rich menu of
exchange control regulations for as long as government escalates its
obsession of controlling what it does not have.
It would help maters if
the NIPC restricts its role to that of complementing
other economic agencies
by working towards striking a balance between
viability and affordability.
Politicking should be left to politicians.
The NIPC must be seen to be
professional. Objectivity should be its
overriding principle at all times.
It is through a win-win approach devoid
of emotions that the social contract
can be given wings to fly the country's
economy back to prosperity.
It is
a tragedy that instead of discharging their mandates diligently, some
civil
servants are shutting their minds completely from the realities on the
ground to please their political masters.
And therein lie Zimbabwe's
problems.
When government ejected David Govere from the NIPC chair, we warned
that the
businessman had done nothing wrong. His offence, in our view, was
his
failure to read his principal's lips. Government is content with a
commission that panders to its whims with no regard for economic
rationality.
Govere's error of judgement when he took up the
high-pressure job was a
grave one and what then followed is now
history.
In our opinion the new NIPC chairman might also not last the
distance
despite striking the right political chord.
While his style
blends well with the government's electioneering strategy,
it lacks the
momentum to carry it beyond the March 2008 elections.
After the harmonised
elections Masimirembwa would be lucky to escape being
thrown into the
political dustbin in which the ruling ZANU PF discards those
who swallow -
hook, line and sinker - its election ruse, which is: the end
justifies the
means.
Mutambara our only hope
EDITOR-During the
liberation war of the 1970's, I was a very young guy
growing up in Njelele,
Dewe village in Matobo District.
The comrades who were fighting the
racist white regime told us that they
were not fighting a white man as a
person, but were fighting the system
whereby the majority black Zimbabweans,
did not own land and were denied
equal opportunities with white men.
Come
elections in 1980, ZANU PF under the leadership of President Robert
Mugabe,
won the elections and formed the government. Those of us in the
south-western parts of the country, truly speaking did not enjoy the fruits
of independence since President Mugabe unleashed his Fifth Brigade known as
Gukurahundi on us. It dawned on me that the elections of 1980 only changed
colours not policies. A white dictatorial regime was replaced by a black
dictatorship one. The policies remained the same.
The state of emergency
remained in force just as LOMA remained with a new
name POSA. ZANU PF went
on to amend the constitution to give President
Robert Mugabe executive
powers. Now he has been declared (unofficially) life
president. Dissenting
voices started being crushed: Tekere, Makoni, Welshman
Mabhena and others
fell by the wayside. Anyone who dared to challenge him
was dealt with in a
harsh way. Think of six ZANU PF chairpersons who were
fired together with
Professor Jonathan Moyo.
Chinamasa, Mnangagwa and others were
demoted.
When President Mugabe, again wanted to increase his term of office
to 2010,
the other group of ZANU PF protested and now they are wanted out.
The better
devil is now the Mnangagwa group, which is going to bed with him.
The Mujuru
group, which was Mugabe's sweetheart, is now out of favour
because they are
trying to put sense in him to step down because the country
is in ruins.
All I am saying is that as long as you are President Mugabe's
"yes" men, you
are welcome in ZANU PF, but should you differ with him, you
are the enemy of
the party. Is that democracy? Is that what our brothers
died for during the
liberation war? So ZANU PF's definition of democracy is
"never differ with
the president of the party" because if you do so, you are
then an enemy as
evil as Blair, Brown, Bush and the MDC. And also about 15
million
Zimbabweans would be sacrificed; all the country's resources will go
towards
protecting a single man's interests at the expense of the masses.
Just think
of constitutional amendments 17 and 18, which are all serving
President
Mugabe's interests. Now the question is: Is President Mugabe the
right
presidential candidate? The answer is a big NO.
In 1999,
progressive Zimbabweans, sat down and decided to form a political
party
which will wrestle power from ZANU PF democratically. Those people
were
Morgan Tsvangirai, Gibson Sibanda, Welshman Ncube. Job Sikhala, David
Coltart, Learnmore Jongwe, Tendai Biti, Gift Chimanikire, Isaac Matongo,
Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, Lucia Matibenga, Roy Bennet etc. They had
a dream for Zimbabwe; they wanted to put an end to ZANU PF's misrule. They
wanted Zimbabweans as a people to decide their own destiny. That was then,
what then happened which led to the MDC split?
The reason why MDC split
is because it was ZANU-fied. Different views were
then not tolerated. Anyone
who innocently advised Tsvangirai about his
shortcomings was regarded as a
ZANU PF spy, CIO or someone who wanted to
wrest the presidency from him. Was
there any difference now between ZANU PF
and MDC? The leader was then more
preoccupied with his position than the
people's needs. The senate elections
were not the cause of the split, but
the leadership split because Tsvangirai
and others were drifting from
democratic values and principles just because
of positions. They were
behaving like ZANU PF. Then there was no reason to
remove ZANU PF and
replace it with Tsvangirai because they all have degrees
in violence and
dictatorship.
To drive a point home, do you know that
Professor Welshman Ncube was once
beaten up by thugs at Harvest House? Trudy
Stevenson, Priscilla
Misihairambwi-Mushonga, Job Sikhala and many others
were beaten up by
Tsvangirai's thugs. Look at Tsvangirai's boys, especially
Lovemore Moyo, had
he won the Matabeleland South chairmanship under the new
MDC, was he going
to rejoin Morgan Tsvangirai's faction? No, he went there
because he had lost
to Moses Mzila Ndlovu. What about Gift Chimanikire, had
he won the
presidency of the Pro democracy group, beating Professor
Mutambara, was he
going to defect? No. These are people who just want to
rule Zimbabwe.
When they split, Tsvangirai and Chamisa vowed not to enter any
election
until there was a new people driven constitution, but immediately
after that
they started participating, what hypocrisy is this? Now The UK
MDC
(Tsvangirai) is dissolved, women's assembly is also dissolved. Ladies
and
gentlemen is this democracy? Is Tsvangirai the best presidential
candidate?
Since he started beating up opponents before being voted into
power, what
will stop him from unleashing soldiers, police, CIO and his
militia on his
opponents?
For sure Tsvangirai and President Mugabe are
birds of the same feather,
let's not have another Chiluba or Muluzi in
Zimbabwe. Let's look for a
better president, Zimbabwe deserves
better.
The Mutambara MDC formation differed with Tsvangirai because of his
lack of
democratic values. Also, Tsvangirai was scoring own goals: remember
the Ben
Menashe issue, the South African government issue of cutting power
to
Zimbabwe. When Welshman Ncube specifically advised the then president, he
was labeled all sorts of names. He was also accused together with Vice
President Gibson Sibanda of harbouring presidential ambitions, which he
denied and he has never submitted their names for nomination. The party then
nominated Professor Mutambara, who was then elected President of the party,
(the Pro-democracy MDC formation).
In his acceptance speech, Professor
Mutambara told Zimbabweans that he was
willing to work together with other
progressive Zimbabweans to bring about
democratic change to the country. He
even offered to step down so that there
could be elections between him and
Tsvangirai. He also told Zimbabweans to
work together and forget tribal and
regional politics. Professor Mutambara
has Zimbabwe at heart, he abandoned
his lucrative career outside the country
to come and save Zimbabwe. For the
sake of unity, Mutambara even offered
that the Tsvangirai formation takes
the Presidency while his pro - democracy
formation takes the deputy position
for the 2008 presidential elections, but
because of his selfish
considerations, Tsvangirai refused.
As a patriotic Zimbabwean, I urge each
and every Zimbabwean to rally behind
Professor Mutambara's MDC during the
coming elections in 2008.
I think that each and everyone of us has proved
beyond reasonable doubt that
Zimbabwe neither needs President Mugabe nor
Tsvangirai. It needs Professor
Mutambara.
Please NCA, WOZA, Crisis
Coalition, Save Zimbabwe, Human Rights Lawyers, War
Veterans, Collaborators,
MDC(Tsvangirai) members, ZANU (PF) members,
Jonathan Moyo and supporter,
let's rally behind Professor Mutambara to save
Zimbabwe.
History will
judge us harshly should we fail to save ZIMBABWE, because of
tribal,
regional and personal interests.
The media can also shape the future of this
country. Zimpapers, ZBC, The
Financial Gazette, The Independent, The
Standard, The Zimbabwean, Studio7,
Mail & Guardian, Zimonline etc., are
you guys sure that you are rallying
behind President Mugabe? Are you sure,
you are rallying behind Tsvangirai?
Can these two gentlelmen save our beloved
country?
Never, because they are just two sides of the same coin.
Now is
the time to rally behind Professor Mutambara so that he can lead us
to the
promised land (Canaan). His MDC has never shifted goal posts or
indicated
left to turn right, his party is principled. We need all
Zimbabweans to
remain united against President Mugabe and Tsvangirai because
2008 is our
last chance. If President Mugabe wins, hunger will continue to
affect us and
if Tsvangirai wins, POSA, AIPPA and security agents will be
unleashed upon
us all.
Edwin Ndlovu
(MDC Pro-democracy Formation) Nkulumane
District, Bulawayo Secretary for
Information and Publicity. NB: I am writing
in my personal capacity as a
concerned Zimbabwean.
---------
CMED
pretests against the law
EDITOR-The nation needs to know the
true position of the so-called pretest
introduced by Christopher Mushowe,
the Minister of Transport and
Communications.
This is despite being well
and reliably being informed about the legal
position. What prompted me to
write was an article in The Herald of October
12, 2007 in which the CMED
director was informing the public on developments
taking place to improve
the illegal service. The article was either an
indication of collusion or
fear of the minister.
The Driving Schools regulations gave birth to the
Driving Schools and
Driving Instructors. The law requires them to be
registered and operate
under known terms of reference. They are required to
use registered and
certified vehicles for training and subsequent reference
of applicants to
VID. The vehicles and activities are insured in terms of
law.
The CMED is a statutory body introduced by an act of parliament. It was
once
a government department which was transformed into a private company
whose
mandate is clearly spelt.
The mandate does not include the recently
introduced driver pretesting. The
mandate is to hire transport and heavy
duty equipment mostly to government
departments. They do not have anything
called pretest assessor in their
statutes.
Government departments have
perennial transport problems yet they are busy
misappropriating resources to
the minister's illegal venture. They also
diversified into passenger
transport illegally.
How can one minister have two institutions in his
portfolio performing the
same function. This must obviously be duplication
and unnecessary taxing of
the public.
The minister cites corruption for
his actions though I dispute this. You
remember EASYGO Driving School. It
was getting stiff competition from other
schools hence came up with a
monopolistic position of pretest. Was there no
corruption when Cde Mushowe
personally forced CMED to form EASYGO, by then
he was claiming high fees by
driving schools. Is he now happy with driving
school fees? Something is
certainly fishy.
What is the position in case of an applicant who is involved
in a traffic
accident with an assessor or VID during a test? Are they
covered by the
insurance and in terms of the law? It is quite apparent that
the minister is
colluding with CMED enforcing the CMED and prospective
drivers to follow an
illegal process for best reasons known to
them.
Law abiding citizen
Harare
----------
Why should we pay
more for same water?
EDITOR-Would someone at ZINWA please
explain, preferably in one syllable
words, why, because I live in a low
density area, I am paying five (yes
five) times the amount per cubic metre
of water than those in high density
areas.
The water I drink is not of
superior quality; it comes from the same source,
has the same percentage of
chemicals and is pumped by the same pumps. There
is absolutely no
justification for this and it reeks of elitist thinking by
the ZINWA heads.
Living in a low density suburb does not mean we can be
ripped off, just
because ZiINWA presumes or thinks that we are rich - a lot
of us are
not.
Low density householders and tenants, add your voice to this call and
get
this rip-off corrected now..
Time to UNITE.
Mike
Lanchester
Harare
-------------
Layman's guide to Zim inflation
rate
EDITOR-In January this year, government doctors went on
strike to pressure
the government to improve working conditions and have
their salaries hiked
by 8 000 percent.
And how much were they earning?
Around Z$56 000 per month...
As I write (October 2007), a cigarette on the
streets now costs $70 000).
We shall overcome!
Tony
Namate
Harare