Activist escapes abductors after six months in captivity

MDC-T MP Nyamande killed

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com

7th Nov 2009 14:46 GMT

By Forward Maisokwadzo

The MDC-T MP for Makoni Central, John Nyamande has died in a car crash early
hours of today, a tragic incident which has left the MDC leadership and its
supporters, family and friends shocked and devastated. He was 57.

Nyamande, a former school teacher and former MDC-UK interim chairman
defeated Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu PF's chief negotiator in the Government of
National Unity and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs. Chinamasa is his
cousin.

Nyamande famously known in his constituency and supporters as 'Mhofu muri
vahombe,' close family friends in UK says he was driving his official
twin-cab and hit an unidentified truck stationary in the middle of the
highway along Rusape-Harare road in Ruwa early hours of today.

There was violence when he arrived in Makoni to campaign and for so many
occasions Nyamande was target of assasination. At one stage, during the
height of ZANU-PF perpetrated violence, Nyamande escaped an assassination
attempt.

Nyamande who has been based in the United Kingdom knew the risks of going
back home and challenge Robert Mugabe.

After his stunning election as MP, Mr Nyamande returned to the UK where his
family live and delivered talks about his experiences during election.

He spoke about the horrors of his election, the election of the Speaker of
Parliament, the Power Sharing talks and the MDC vision.
It is sad day for Zimbabwean politics for having lost such a formidable
politician of his calibre.

Zanu PF splits Over White Farmer's Eviction

http://www.radiovop.com/

     
      Masvingo  - November 7, 2009 - Zanu PF provincial heavy weights here
have been sharply divided over Chiredzi magistrate Enias Magate's ruling
this week that a prominent commercial farmer, Digby Nesbit, must vacate his
Hippo Valley Settlement Holdings Farm number 30 by November 22, despite
pleas by the provincial politburo members that he should be spared from the
eviction as he was productive and providing a meaningful input to the
economy.

      Police Assistant Commissioner Edmore Veterai has won a two year long
fight for the farm after Magate, who presented a 200 paged document on how
he arrived on his judgment, found Nesbit guilty of contravening the Gazetted
Land Consequential Provisions Act for occupation of gazetted land without
lawful authority and ordered him to pay a fine of USd 200 or face ten days
imprisonment.

      The magistrate described Nesbit as a 'philanthropist' because of his
charitable works that he has been doing in Chiredzi since 1971 which
includes feeding the blind, opening an orphanage that has housed 100
destitutes and catered for their welfare until they finished 'A' level.

      Magate however noted that since the land has been gazetted by the
state in December 2007, he was an illegal occupant. Nesbit was also given
three months to relocate his crocodiles from the farm.

      It has now emerged that some Zanu PF officials mainly from the Solomon
Mujuru faction, who have been assuring Nesbit that he will never be evicted,
are now openly condemning the court ruling, while the Emmerson Mnangagwa
backed side celebrated over the white farmer's eviction.

      A Zanu PF legislator from Chiredzi, who refused to be named, said the
factions which already exist in the party's provincial circles, are further
drifted apart because of Nesbit's fate.

      Although not confirming the dispute within the party, Zanu PF
politburo member Dzikamai Mavhaire, told RadioVOP,  the court had been ill
advised.

      "It is actually a long story but for your sake I want to tell you that
Nesbit has been doing a lot of developmental projects in Chiredzi. He is
actually the man who has brought Chiredzi on the map in as far as
development is concerned. Why then do we continue to chase him away from his
farm when he had surrendered almost three quarters of his land to the state?
I do not see the logic of it," said Mavhaire.

      Zanu PF politburo member and former legislator for the area, Celine
Pote said:" I do not think it was good for the court to evict Nesbit
considering a lot of work that he was doing for Chiredzi."

      However, Masvingo Governor Titus Maluleke said the court's judgment
was final and it did not make sense for the people to continue debating over
water under the bridge.

      Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Gideon Gono, had during his
tour of the farm in 2006, praised the farmer's crocodile project, saying it
was generating the much needed foreign currency in the country.

      Rodney Makausi of Chihambakwe and Makonese legal practitioners,
representing Nesbit told Radio VOP that he was going to appeal against
judgment on Monday.

Zimbabwean Speaker submits ZEC candidates' names to president

http://www.apanews.net

APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Zimbabwe's parliament has submitted to President
Robert Mugabe the names of persons shortlisted for appointment to the
country's new electoral body, APA learns here Saturday.

The Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo, submitted 12 names of candidates
shortlisted to sit on the reformed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

President Mugabe is expected to appoint eight members from the list
submitted by parliament's Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) of
which four people, apart from the chairperson, should be women.

The Zimbabwean head of state will also appoint a chairperson who must be a
sitting or former judge of the Supreme Court or the High Court.

The president can also pick any person qualified for appointment to the
bench as chairman of the Commission after consultation with the Judicial
Service Commission and the SROC.

Members of the ZEC will serve for a term of six years and their appointment
may be renewed for one further term only.

The ZEC's functions will include preparing for, conducting and supervising
elections for the office of President, Parliament, local council elections
and referendums.

ZEC will also ensure that elections and referendums are conducted
efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with the law.

  JN/ad/APA 2009-11-07

Banks comply with capital requirements: Gono

http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Own Correspondent Saturday 07 November 2009

HARARE - Zimbabwe's central bank governor Giedon Gono on Friday said almost
all of the country's banking institutions have managed to raise the minimum
capital requirements, thus averting any major potential shocks within the
industry.

In a briefing to bankers and journalists Gono however lashed out banks for
failing to advance loans to sectors such agriculture, manufacturing and
mining.

"It is my pleasure to report that as at October 31, 23 out of 26 banking
institutions had core capital complying with the prescribed minimum capital
requirements," Gono told a news conference.

"The introduction of the multicurrency system necessitated the restatement
of banking institutions' balance sheets to take into account the value of
assets which in conventional accounting had been depleted to zero, following
a period of hyperinflation."

Gono said agriculture remained one of the mainstays of the economy and
appealed to bankers to extend financing.

"The Reserve Bank notes with great concern that some banking institutions
are not playing a meaningful role in the extension of credit to the
agricultural sector. As an agriculturally based economy, the economic
fortunes of the nation predominantly depend on the performance of the
agricultural sector."

Gono also said that two commercial banks, one merchant bank and one discount
house had failed to meet the minimum requirements but added that plans were
underway to meet the regulations.

Under the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe regulations, for commercial banks to be
operational they would need to deposit US$6.5 million with the central bank
as of end of last month, but should by end of March next year have paid
US$12.5 million.

Merchant banks must have paid US$5 million as of end of October while, by
end of March next year the institutions should have paid US$10 million.

Building socities were suppossed to have paid US$5 million by the end of
last month. - ZimOnline

Court says to hear Mawere case 'soon'

http://www.zimonline.co.za/

by Cuthbert Nzou Saturday 07 November 2009

HARARE - The Supreme Court this week said it would soon hear embattled
business tycoon Mutumwa Mawere's constitutional application challenging the
appropriation of his companies by government.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said the court needed time to go through
various records and documents related to the case before the hearing. He did
not give a date for the commencement of the matter.

He postponed hearing the case saying some of the documents were filed with
the court as late as last Thursday morning.

Lawyers representing Mawere and respondents in the matter concurred that the
court could not deliberate on the matter on the same grounds and conceded
that the latest documents had been filed out of time. Generally, the court
needs a week to go through records before sitting.

Mawere is challenging the constitutional validity of the Reconstruction of
State-Indebted and Insolvent Companies Act and alleged lack of fairness in
the actions and decisions taken by SMM administrator Arafus Gwaradzimba and
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa in appropriating his companies.

Gwaradzimba and Chinamasa are cited as the first and third respondents,
respectively. Lawyer Edwin Manikai and President Robert Mugabe are also
cited as respondents.

Mawere's lawyer, Advocate Adrian de Bourbon, argues that the Reconstruction
Act permits the state to expropriate property "without notice, payment of
fair compensation or judicial oversight" in violation of rights provided for
under the Bill of Rights in the country's supreme law. He further argues
that the law denies aggrieved parties access to the courts.

Mugabe was cited as a respondent because he used his Presidential Powers
(Temporary Measures) Act in September 2004 to empower Chinamasa to place any
company under reconstruction if the minister believes "for any other reason"
that the firm would likely not repay a credit accessed from public funds.

De Bourbon further argues that a reconstruction order issued against a
company is "deemed to have been issued in relation" to every associate
company of that company and "every company not formally associated with the
company".

The Constitution of Zimbabwe states that " . . . no property of any
description or interest or right therein shall be compulsorily acquired
except under the authority of law".

But the respondents' lawyers argued that Mawere cannot be entitled to the
same rights as a resident Zimbabwean.

The lawyers argue that Section 11 of the Constitution does not give Mawere
"fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution," adding, "one has to be
in Zimbabwe ".

The lawyers further argue that Mawere is not a Zimbabwean citizen but a
South African according to his pronouncement.

The respondents argued: "The application itself is not clear on precisely
which provisions of the constitution it claimed have been violated and this
evident from the draft order. There is also reference in the body of the
application to the provisions of Section 16, Section 18 (9) as well as
Article 3 of the constitution.

They are bland allegations of breach through discriminations such as made in
paragraph 208 and the incredible 236 which equates the reconstruction law to
"NAZI" of the founding affidavit but which appear not to have been followed
through in terms of the order sought."

The respondents' lawyers further argued that the provisions of the
Reconstruction Act are consistent with the declaration of rights and do not
conflict with Section 16 and 18 of the constitution.

Mawere was accused of externalisation of funds out of Zimbabwe without
exchange control authority. SMM Holdings Ltd, Zimre Holdings, Schweppes
Zimbabwe Ltd and CFI Holdings Ltd were controlled by Mawere before a
reconstruction order was issued. - ZimOnline

Kimberley Process: Zimbabwe Action Mars Credibility

http://www.hrw.org/

Human Rights Watch

Diamond Monitoring Body's Failure to Suspend Allows for Sale of "Blood
Diamonds"
November 6, 2009
  The group that monitors blood diamonds essentially ignored the blood being
shed in Zimbabwe's diamond fields. That decision puts diamond consumers at
risk of buying blood diamonds.
  Georgette Gagnon, Africa director
(Johannesburg) - The credibility of the world's "blood diamond" monitoring
group has been damaged after its failure this week to suspend Zimbabwe
despite overwhelming evidence of serious human rights abuses and smuggling
in the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch said
today.

"The group that monitors blood diamonds essentially ignored the blood being
shed in Zimbabwe's diamond fields," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director
at Human Rights Watch. "That decision puts diamond consumers at risk of
buying blood diamonds."

As recently as late October, 2009, Human Rights Watch uncovered rampant
abuses by the military in Marange including forced labor, child labor,
killings, beatings, smuggling, and corruption. Human Rights Watch confirmed
that stones coming from these fields are mined in the context of serious
human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch called on the diamond industry and diamond consumers to
boycott Marange diamonds until Zimbabwe ends all abuses and removes the
military from the area. With the failure of the Kimberley Process to stand
resolutely for clean diamonds, it is now up to consumers to insist on
conflict-free gems, Human Rights Watch said.

The Kimberley Process, an international body governing the diamond industry,
held a plenary meeting November 2 through 5 in Swakopmund, Namibia. The
group deliberated whether to suspend Zimbabwe after a review mission, sent
by the group itself, found "credible indications of significant
non-compliance" with the group's minimum standards.

 In particular, the review mission, from June 30 to July 4, documented
extensive smuggling of diamonds and rampant violence against local miners
and residents by Zimbabwean police and army officers. The review mission
recommended suspension of Zimbabwe and the appointment of a human rights
expert to examine further abuses in Marange. The mission also said the
military should withdraw immediately from the diamond fields.

Despite these recommendations, the group's plenary, which works by
consensus, instead asked Zimbabwe to adhere to a work plan that Zimbabwe had
proposed. The plan commits the country to a phased withdrawal of the
military without specific time lines, directs police to provide security for
the area, and provides for a monitor, agreed to by both Zimbabwe and the
Kimberley process, to examine and certify all shipments of diamonds from
Marange.

"These benchmarks are weak, at best, and they won't prevent serious abuses
from occurring around Marange, nor halt the smuggling of diamonds," Gagnon
said. "Without stronger action, the group cannot certify that the diamonds
coming from Zimbabwe are clean."

Israel and Canada pushed unsuccessfully for suspension of Zimbabwe, but
South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Russia
supported Zimbabwe and called for technical assistance without suspension.
The Russian delegation stated that "at present there are no conflict
diamonds in Zimbabwe."

Human Rights Watch has urged the Kimberley process to interpret broadly the
definition of "conflict diamonds," explicitly to include diamonds mined in
the context of serious human rights abuses. The Kimberley Process, Human
Rights Watch said, should also review its consensus-based decision-making
mechanism and provide for a voting system that will enable the body to make
difficult decisions without compromising the group's core mandate.

"To its discredit, the Kimberley Process showed a lack of political will to
compel Zimbabwe to end abuses that the group's own review team has
condemned," Gagnon said. "This diamond monitoring body has utterly lost
credibility."

Expanded Role Seen for S. Africa's Zuma in Zimbabwe Unity Gov't Patchup

http://www.voanews.com

     

      By Blessing Zulu & Ntungamili Nkomo
      Washington
      06 November 2009

South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to take a leading role in
monitoring follow-through by the partners in Zimbabwe's government of
national unity in implementing a deal concluded late Thursday in Maputo,
Mozambique, by the GNU principals with the help of the Southern African
Development Community troika on politics.

A communiqué issued by the SADC committee said the unity government
principals "should engage in dialogue with immediate effect within 15 days
(but) not beyond 30 days."

Some have taken this to mean the parties have committed themselves to reach
agreement on outstanding issues in that 30-day window, though the language
is ambiguous.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said after the SADC troika meeting that his
movement for Democratic Change Formation would restore normal relations with
the ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe. Mr. Tsvangirai declared Oct.
16 that his party was disengaging from ZANU-PF over its alleged violations
of the power-sharing agreement.

SADC sources said African leaders at the meeting, who included President
Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, troika chairman, and Mr. Zuma told the
Zimbabwean leaders not to set pre-conditions to negotiations, as as both
wanted their grievances to be addressed first.

Sources informed on the Maputo talks said President Mugabe and Prime
Minister Tsvangirai traded recriminations during the discussions, the
president complaining that the MDC had not done enough to bring about the
lifting of Western travel and financial restrictions, and the prime minister
alleging a calculated ZANU-PF crackdown on members of his party.

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, head of a rival MDC formation to Mr.
Tsvangirai's, told VOA Studio 7 reporter Blessing Zulu that he is confident
the GNU will now succeed.

Tsvangirai MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa commended the regional organization
for its mediation in the crisis. But ZANU-PF Deputy Spokesman Ephraim Masawi
called MDC officials crybabies and accused them of being controlled by the
West.

 from VOA's Studio 7

Anatomy of dispute between MDC, Zanu-PF

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24610

Zimbabwe and the Kimberley Process

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/nov/131608.htm

US Department of State

Washington, DC

November 6, 2009

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In light of serious concerns about Zimbabwe's compliance with the Kimberley
Process (KP) rough diamond certification scheme, we await full and
expeditious implementation of the stringent controls for exports of rough
diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange fields that were agreed at the KP Plenary
in Swakopmund, Namibia, on November 5. The United States expects Zimbabwe to
commit substantial effort and resources to the obligations of the Work Plan.
If the Work Plan is not thoroughly implemented, we expect the KP to suspend
Zimbabwe's status in the KP certification scheme. We further note that
Zimbabwe agreed only to export Marange diamonds once the monitoring
mechanism is established. In addition, the United States remains deeply
concerned about human rights abuses in the diamond regions of Zimbabwe.

The United States welcomes progress made during the KP Plenary regarding
increased oversight of exports from Guinea, new measures regarding
identification and cooperation on suspicious shipments and efforts to
improve coordination on technical and development assistance.

PRN: 2009/1112

UN attempts to slow the new scramble for Africa

http://www.independent.co.uk

Alarm over scale of foreign holdings and secretive land deals by wealthy
nations

By Daniel Howden, Africa Correspondent

Saturday, 7 November 2009

More than 50 heads of state will gather for a summit later this month to
look at ways of policing the extraordinary "land grab" that has seen richer
countries buy up at least 20 million hectares of farmland in Africa in the
last 18 months. The United Nations is drawing up a "code of conduct" in an
effort to slow what's been described as a new scramble for Africa, while
agriculture experts are calling for a new global watchdog and aid agencies
are appealing for a moratorium on new deals.

Countries including the Gulf States, China, South Korea and a host of
private investors and sovereign wealth funds have provoked serious concerns
internationally with a string of aggressive and often secretive deals for
large tracts of arable land on the world's hungriest continent.

David Hallam, the deputy director of the trade and markets division at the
UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and one of the experts
drafting the code, said yesterday that the "principles are agreed" and he
expected leaders to make a joint statement at a summit in Rome in a
fortnight's time. "It's going to bring these deals into focus and make
people think about what's going on," he told The Independent.

According to FAO figures the recent wave of land acquisitions is equivalent
to one-tenth of the entire area already farmed in Africa, or twice the
arable land in Germany.

The code is expected to try and break the secrecy surrounding these deals
and ensure locals' rights are not being trampled by big corporations or
governments and that Africans' food security is not further threatened. "In
the worst cases it's fair to say we are looking at neo-colonialism," said Dr
Hallam.

In the last year Saudi Arabia has added to huge holdings in Sudan with a
$100 million deal for land in famine stricken Ethiopia; Qatar has begun
acquiring 40,000 hectares in Kenya's Tana River Delta to grow fruit and
vegetables despite a drought that sees the UN feeding four million Kenyans;
China has added to its huge holdings in Zimbabwe and Algeria; and Egypt has
leased 2 million acres of land from Uganda to grow corn and wheat.

The deal that really brought the phenomenon to the surface was the
Madagascar government's decision to lease 1.3 million hectares, or half the
island's arable land, to the South Korean giants Daewoo for 99 years for
biofuel plantations. When it was revealed that Daewoo would pay nothing for
the land and would instead barter it for infrastructure projects, president
Marc Ravalomanana's administration became the first to be toppled over "land
grabbing". The deal has been scrapped.

The scramble has its roots in last year's food crisis, which saw a huge
spike in the price of staples and food protectionism, where countries
slapped export bans on rice and other foodstuffs. Food was not only more
expensive, it was unavailable. Then came the oil price rises. "Oil-rich and
water-poor countries suddenly became interested in securing their long-term
food supplies," said Ruth Meinzen-Dick, senior research fellow at the
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington.

"Many of these deals were quite secretive and there was no clear benefit for
the people living in these areas."

Added to these factors was the historic switch from food to fuel, driven by
US subsidies for corn-based ethanol and hasty moves by the EU to set targets
to switch from fossil fuels to bio-fuels which have since been reversed.

The IFPRI is calling for a watchdog "with teeth" to ensure that there is
"informed consent" in poorer countries where land is being leased, as well
as respect for African customary law, which is supposed to protect the
traditional rights of smallholders.

Meinzen-Dick advocates a system that would ensure that in times of shortage
there would be restrictions on the amount of food exported from
foreign-owned land.

The irony is that the current trend could be a win-win situation as everyone
is agreed that Africa is in dire need of investment: foreign aid and
domestic spending on agriculture has dipped alarmingly in the last two
decades.

The London-based International Institute for Environment and Development
rejects the "land grab" analysis as too "simplistic". In a recent report the
think-tank argued that there can be an upside if the investments are
structured to create "new opportunities".

The report does warn that too much of the land being signed away is "high
value" and that African governments are pushing through deals under the
pretence that common land is "unused".

Speaking at an FAO event in Washington earlier this year Chido Makunike, a
Zimbabwean agricultural consultant, explained: "In Africa, far from being
perceived as a mere economic resource land has cultural, sentimental, and
political meanings, and represents one of the strongest symbols of
dispossession during the colonial era."

Zimbabwe and Chinese firm to seal mining deal business

http://steelguru.com/

Saturday, 07 Nov 2009
According to Mr Trynos Nkomo president of Zimbabwe Miners Federation, small
scale miners are about to realize their true potential once the federation
seals a partnership deal with a Chinese firm that specializes in mining
equipment.

Speaking in an interview following a visit to China by a delegation led by
the Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Mr Murisi Zwizwai, Mr
Nkomo said his organization had engaged a big Chinese firm in a deal that
could improve production in the local gold mining sphere.

Mr Nkomo said "Our trip to China saw us meeting and engaging in talks with
some major mining stakeholders at the China Mining Expo. We are on the brink
of securing lucrative deals for our small scale gold miners. He said that as
small scale gold miners we have always brought forward our plight which is
that of shortage of appropriate mining equipment that is essential if we are
ever to reach our full potential.

He added that "The Chinese firm we are about to engage specializes in modern
high tech equipment and we are convinced that with such a partner, small
scale miners will be able to boost their production levels. He also said
that the federation together with its potential partner had put in place a
joint commission to facilitate the partnership."

Mr Nkomo said "The name of the firm cannot be revealed now as this might
jeopardize our negotiations, but we have set up a joint commission with the
Chinese with the sole purpose of facilitating the partnership's terms and
goals. Hopefully everything will go according to plan."

He said that the "Look East policy' should have been diversified to all
sectors of the economy as the mining sector could have started reaping the
benefits of the country's mineral reserves a long time ago."

The partnership with the Chinese will see the small-scale miners getting
equipment that can be used to go further down in the ground in search of
mineral resources. Small scale miners have been facing the dilemma of poor
working equipment and most of them have been using traditional equipment
that only allowed them to tap the resources that are only near the surface
of the earth leaving most of the minerals untapped.

(Sourced from allafrica.com)

China not courting Africa only for energy: Wen

(AFP) - 11 hours ago

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao denied that Beijing was developing ties
in Africa purely to satisfy its need for energy, as he headed for talks with
the continent's leaders, according to state media.

Speaking while on the plane to Egypt, where he is due to meet Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak before the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation begins
on Sunday, Wen said Beijing had an important role to play in Africa's
development.

"Energy cooperation is just one area" where China and Africa were working
together, he said. "In no way has China come to Africa solely for its energy
sources," he added, according to comments carried by People's Daily.

"The aim for China in helping Africa is to reinforce its own role in
development," Wen said.

Some Western critics have accused China of worsening repression and human
rights abuses in Africa by supporting countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe
in its drive to gain access to natural resources.

But other observers have said the closer ties between the two sides are
focused on industries that would improve African development such as
agriculture, electric power, transportation and water drainage.

China is also seen as a key player in ending the six-year war between the
Sudanese government and rebels in Darfur. It is a leading weapons supplier
to Sudan and importer of its oil.

Sunday's summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes as Beijing
bids to expand its diplomatic and economic influence on the resource-rich
continent.

Chinese companies have been pouring investments into oil and other raw
materials in Africa to fuel the country's booming economy.

At the last China-Africa summit in Beijing in 2006, China pledged hefty aid
and vowed to step up its trade relations with the continent.

Direct Chinese investment in Africa soared from 491 million dollars in 2003
to 7.8 billion dollars in 2008. Trade between the two has increased ten-fold
since the start of the decade.

Constitution Making Process Should Not Be Rushed - Mangwana

http://www.radiovop.com/

     
      Masvingo, November 7, 2009 - Chivi Central legislator and
co-chairperson of the constitution making process, Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana
said his team will not tolerate calls from various stakeholders, political
parties and donors to rush the constitution making process.

      Speaking to journalists at the Civic Center in Masvingo on Friday
night, Mangwana said: "We will take our time. There is no need to push us on
this issue of constitution, we want to come up with a perfect thing which is
going to last forever. We are already six months behind ...All what people
need is to have a constitution done but they are not considering that we are
operating without a budget since the formation of this inclusive government.
We want to be serious with this issue so we will not tolerate calls to
 rush."

      "We need at least US$ 5, 4 million for training people and the
consultation process. The whole remaining work needs about 11 million
dollars. We have 70 teams which are going to be deployed in each province
come next week. However, we are happy that minister of Finance Tendai Biti
will be part of our management committee so we will be putting pressure on
him to give us some money to use," said Mangwana.

      The constitution is expected to be complete by next year in December
but Mangwana said there were no time lines.

      Mangwana is on record saying that elections and the new constitution
are not related. He emphasized that even if the new constitution was
completed, legislators must never be forced into another election. He said
the elections which will come after the new constitution might be only
presidential.

      "How can any sane man wants to challenge me after elections, I am
going to serve Chivi Central for five years. I will never accept elections
before the end of my term. Maybe Mugabe and Tsvangirai will go in to the
elections not MPs- never," said Mangwana.

Principals not serious about constitution

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=24633

November 7, 2009

By Owen Chikari

MASVINGO - The three principals to the Global Political Agreement which
ushered in the country's inclusive government have not been serious in the
constitution making process hence the parliamentary select committee will
now not meet its deadline as prescribed in the GPA.

President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirayi and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara are the principals to the GPA which facilitated
the formation of the inclusive government brokered by former South African
President Thabo Mbeki.

Addressing journalists in Masvingo yesterday Zanu-PF co-chairperson of the
parliamentary select committee on the constitution making process Paul
Munyaradzi Mangwana said that the three principals were not serious about
the process hence. He cited the failure to make a budgetary allocation for
the programme.

Mangwana said his committee was now obliged to seek an extension of the
deadline as prescribed in the GPA because they had already lost four months.

"The three principals were not serious because if they were really committed
they should have allocated the parliamentary select committee a budget",
said Mangwana who is also Chivi central legislator, representing Zanu-PF.

"We have been operating using our own resources and the three principals
have been quiet about it," he added.

"We are now saying, 'If you are serious where is the budget?'"

Mangwana also attacked the media for failing to pressurise the principals to
release the money on time.

"We were banking on you journalists to put pressure on the principals so
that they give us money for the process. We said no to donor funding because
the product would not be home-grown. If there are any donors they have to
come through the government," said Mangwana.

He, however, said that the committee had since received $300 000 to start
the outreach programme. He said the money fell far shot of the required $11,
4 million.

"We have been promised that monies would not be regularly channelled to us
and we believe next week we will start training members of the thematic
committees and the outreach programme, which involves the gathering of
people's views, would immediately follow," said Mangwana.

According to Mangwana the outreach programme which will see three meetings
being held in each local government rural ward and one meeting in each urban
ward would require only USD 5, 4 million dollars.

He said the outreach programme would require about 65 working days to be
completed.

Mangwana said because the funds were now starting to in the committee had
now secured offices and opened a bank account.

"We want our names to be in the history books that we spear-headed the
writing of the constitution," said Mangwana. "Next week we are going to
conduct interviews for members of the secretariat."

Turning to the controversial issue in which Zanu-PF is allegedly telling its
supporters to rally behind the Kariba Draft Mangwana said this draft was
like any other draft and would be used as a reference point during the
constitutional process.

Mangwana, of Zanu-PF, Douglas Mwonzora of the mainstream MDC and a
legislator from the MDC -M co-chair the parliamentary select committee on
the constitution-making process.

According to the GPA the parliamentary select committee should have started
gathering the people's views in July this year, with the process being
completed by the end of this month.

The dangers of political tinkering

It is very well for Job Sikhala to write and tell people about his
contributions to the democratic fight and the formation of the MDC in
particular. It is also within Sikhala’s rights to stake his claim in the
national process and it is again within his rights, to name himself ahead of
other people who were also involved with the MDC both at its formation,
thereafter, and up to now. Of course there are so many people who were
initially close to the MDC but are now on the sidelines. Some were too
disgruntled to carry on and others were literary eased out of the way.

Indeed Sikhala is a very courageous and brave person who has sacrificed so
much in the fight for democratic space in Zimbabwe. That is why he earned
himself the name “Wiwa” after Ken Saro Wiwa the late Ogoni nationalist who
was killed at the height of the suppression of the Ogoni uprisings by the
government of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. it does not augur well
for history however, when a national process is owned and identified with
only a tiny minority of people when in fact the scope of involvement was
greater. Neither is it health for nation building when supposed leaders do
not sincerely but rather conveniently, put themselves under due scrutiny and
thereby deny the nation a fuller and comprehensive analysis of their
contributions and also transgressions. To begin with, the names that Sikhala
always throws around when he narrates about the formation of the MDC are not
the only ones that were involved, neither were some of them the leading
personalities.

There were so many other people involved, both at high profile and in the
middle and lower echelons of the party and perhaps Sikhala could remember to
say “and many others” if he cannot name them. The mentality of “owning” the
process of the inception of the MDC is what has tended to limit the party’s
successes so far. There is a culture of possessing the party like it is some
prized personal asset with a few people claiming to be more MDC than others,
a practice that is at the heart of ZANU PF where the term “mafikizolo” is a
regular reference to anyone in the party who may seek to question the
conscience of the ZANU PF establishment. The idea (in ZANU PF), is to
silence dessent. What Sikhala also tends to conveniently shy away from is
the fact there were a lot of political novices who found themselves at the
right place at the right time and in the process, landed themselves
positions of trust, power and national importance that they did not know how
best to handle. It was too much of an adjustment for a great number of MDC
“founders” who found themselves thrust in the limelight overnight.

Nobody really imagined the MDC overrunning Zimbabwean national politics in
the manner it did and that was not necessarily due to the MDC’s own making,
but was mainly due to the fact that the environment in Zimbabwe was now
conducive for a new serious political entrant to compete with ZANU PF. Very
few MDC politicians knew what they were doing on the word go, and the rest
were in some dangerous process of “on the job trial and error” at the
expense of the people. But several got away with it, and continue to do so
now because the situation in Zimbabwe would favour more scrutiny on ZANU PF
than on MDC politicians. It is a dangerous scenario because by the time
scrutiny shifts to the MDC if at all it does, that may be too late. This is
what happened at independence and few years that followed then because it
made more nationalistic sense to criticise anything that Smith and his
Rhodesian Front stood for, than what Mugabe and ZANU stood for and a
dictator and horrible party were born in the process.

For Sikhala to say he is now “free” because he has now realised that it was
wrong to join the other MDC faction that is led by Arthur Mutambara is
missing the point. There were a number of wrong decisions that followed the
MDC split yes, and there have been a lot of cases of bad judgement but this
must never be misconstrued with the reason why the MDC split in the first
place. What Sikhala must probably say in honesty is that maybe, he has now
learned a thing or two in the last two years or so. Because the problem with
tinkering with serious political issues is that they remain unresolved and
useful lessons don’t get learned in the process. Also, Sikhala cannot afford
to keep the nation guessing about his future political plans when he knows
what he intends to do because that is in unfair to the people who have
always stood by him.

Also, and very importantly, Sikhala is making no mention what so ever of the
fact that he tried unsuccessfully to impose himself as the leader of that
formation. He is also not admitting that part of his new found freedom is
the freedom of his conscience to see the difference between wrong and right.
Sikhala has been fighting for democratic reform and constitutional freedom,
and he seemed oblivious that the formation of the MDC he chose at the split
of the party also adopted a constitution as a working document. That
constitution does not provide that any disgruntled member of the formation
can do whatever they please in dealing with the source of their
disgruntlement. There are always channels, democratic channels for that
matter that Sikhala could have very easily resorted. But it is quite
heartening that he realised the futility of the route that he had initially
chosen as a mode of addressing his concerns. That is something to celebrate
indeed, not utopian freedom from utopian conviction.

What the MDC failed as a party in its initial stages, was to enunciate an
honest and frank process of correctly identifying people’s talents and
strengths and then effectively deploying them to the best advantage and
benefit of the party. Or better still, the party could have allowed an
incubation period whereby people would take positions with a view to later
reviewing their performances and strengths within a reasonably short period
of time and then re-deploy them around and within the party. That way, the
party could have been better run and maybe, a big maybe, the split could
have been avoided. But because everybody was treading on new ground, no one
was experienced enough to have the experience to identify experienced people
who could deliver better for the party.

When the MDC eventually split in 2005 there was a lot of deliberating and
this was why several people went to the faction led by AGO and then later on
reverted to that led by Tsvangirai. The reasoning for this has never been
fully explained but I know it was partly and probably mainly, to remove or
even neutralise then party secretary Welshman Ncube. There was widespread
belief in the MDC that the SG as Ncube was affectionately referred to, was
pulling in his own direction and not with the party president. In political
terms he was undermining the president and this was deemed to be
counterproductive for any party to do well. I first noticed this (the not
pulling together) first-hand when Ncube travelled with Tsvangirai and
Priscilla Misihairambwi to the UK for their very last trip together before
the party split. Signs were all over that all was not well in the camp.
There was a time when the SG even wanted to prevent Tsavingirai from doing
some of the many tv interviews he was doing.
I later on put it to Tsavingirai that he had to deal with his Secretary
General but he was not sure that could be done it in isolation without
rupturing the party. Tsvangirai also feared a potential back lush from the
support in Matabeleland because then, Ncube was more revered than the
wanning support he now commands. Although I had questions and doubts about
Ncube’s political attributes due to my experience of working close with him
in the MDC, I have never doubted his administrative and managerial
capabilities. This has now even been confirmed by the way he is quite
capably running the ministry of industry. This is what the MDC could have
done, reserving and nurturing people like him for government!

One thing for certain was that had Learnmore Jongwe been around either the
MDC was not going to split or it was going to be easier to deal with the
issue of the Ncube-Tsvangirai rift because Jongwe was also the brains behind
bringing Ncube as a last minute appointment to the SG post. Jongwe and Ncube
understood each other much better and also the former had a lot of clout in
the MDC although he was still very young. Jongwe’s power was also
demonstrated by the way he took on Jonathan Moyo and the entire ZANU PF
propaganda machinery with precise authority and maximum effect. Jonathan
Moyo must have been greatly relieved when Jongwe tragically died bringing
his very promising political career to a premature end.

When AGO was “headhunted” as his choice for leader has been commonly
referred to, the idea was to bring someone who was relatively detached from
the feud at the heart of the party but soundly familiar with MDC politics. A
lot of people have very wrongly and unfairly blamed AGO for the MDC’s woes
and especially for the loss of the 2008 presidential elections. But that
blame has not been rightly apportioned. It is true that there are times when
AGO has made statements that may have not gone down well with some sections
of the Zimbabwean populace, but that does not mean that everything he stands
for is dividing the MDC or ensuring that the MDC never wins an election. Far
from it! When he came onto the scene AGO knew the scale of the task and that
it was going to be difficult or even impossible to re-unite the MDC.

There were people who gave it a timescale after which they would go back to
the main wing of the party. These were the likes of the late Isaac Matongo,
Gift Chimanikire and Blessing Chebundo. However, these people especially
Chebundo and Chimanikire have come face to face with the unforgiving nature
of politics.

Chihuri writes from Scotland and is contactable on email:
silencechihuri@googlemail.com

Blink and you miss it

Dear Family and Friends,

You can sum up the two major events of the past week in a sentence:
diamond suspension: not happening; action on unity government:

another deadline, yes another one. Poor Zimbabwe, disappointed and
let down again and sadly we are not surprised about either the blood
diamonds or the blood stained politics.

 You can't sum up in a few words the present, desperate situation
regarding agriculture. I went on a short journey this week, heading
south east through countryside once alive with agricultural
production: tobacco, maize, fruit, potatoes, cattle and sheep. Now,
almost a decade into land reform, the view is of destruction..

 Roadside woodlands of indigenous Musasa and Mupfuti (Prince of
Wales' Feathers) trees are being hacked down by Zimbabwe's new
farmers. Instead of ploughed or growing fields, the view is of raw
tree stumps overseen by men in scrappy pole and thatch huts. The
tragic irony is that this is open woodland area and all around there
are deserted, unused fields. The new caretakers of Zimbabwe's

countryside have not grown any food to harvest and so instead they
are slashing, burning and destroying yet more land. Even more ironic
is the fact that in the dams visible from the road, there is still
water for irrigating and so drought or a lack of water cannot be
blamed for no production.

 Further along the journey eastwards there is a Grain Marketing Board
depot. Once thriving, bustling places now the red roofed building with
flags fluttering, has no customers or activity. A single cream and
brown ox, harnessed to a rusty two wheeled cart stands outside
flicking flies off his back. On farms which at this time of year
should be, and used to be, green with tobacco or maize as far as the
eye could see, now there are deserted unploughed fields and a few mud
and thatch huts.

Grasslands once crowded with cattle, sheep and even game animals are
now empty. For almost the entire 120 kilometre journey the roadside
fences are gone and handfuls of scrawny cattle with huge horns graze
on the verges. At the railway line which crosses the main road a faded
rusting sign reads: 'Flashlights not working.'

Then, between kopjes, comes a single brief glimpse of a green field -
blink and you miss it. The sign- board on the road gives it away, it
is one of last original commercial farmers that has managed to hold
on.

 In white paint on a rock high up in a kopje someone has painted the
word 'Jesus.' The image sticks in your mind as after a while you try
not to look at the legacy that Zanu PF have given to Zimbabwe and try
not to think about what they have done to our children's heritage. And
you try not to concentrate on how hungry people are going to be or how
the assault on producing farmers continues day after day because of
the colour of their skin.

 Until next week, thanks for reading, love cathy. Copyright cathy
buckle 7th November 2009.

 www.cathybuckle.com

The lure and peril of southern Africa's elephants

http://www.latimes.com

Elephants are a lethal menace to villagers, threatening their lives and
crops. But they bring in tourists, and therefore money, so they are
rigorously protected -- more so than humans, critics say.

By Robyn Dixon
November 7, 2009

Reporting from Katubya, Zambia - Here's how to pitch this (true) story to
Hollywood: Ordinary guy named John, ordinary Sunday, cycling home into a
setting sun. Monster roars out of the bushes!

John abandons his bike, flees in terror. The creature smashes the bicycle,
catches him in a few short strides, grabs him by the shirt. But he slides
out of his shirt and falls to the ground.

It picks him up again and he slips out of his trousers. Naked, too afraid to
even to scream, he scrambles away. But he doesn't get far. The shrieking
monster smashes him against a tree.

Camera pans to an old lady approaching, unaware of the danger.

Within minutes she'll be lying on the path, crushed.

The Hollywood twist? These people live in a bizarre universe where the
rampaging monsters (and there are thousands of them) are protected and the
people are not.

Cut to the killer creatures grazing peacefully (cue close-up of gentle,
intelligent eyes with three-inch lashes) along with their unbearably cute
offspring.

Of course, to sell it, you'd need to change a few details: Lose the African
villagers; make them suburban Americans. And the monster couldn't be that
beloved giant, the elephant. Who would believe it?

::

The name of the dead man was John Muyengo, a 25-year-old from a village
called Katubya in southern Zambia. The woman was Mukiti Ndopu, highly
respected in the village, the wife of the chief.

A neighbor, Muyenga Katiba, 44, saw the elephant charge the young man on
that April day. He gathered his wife and children, and they cowered inside
his hut.

"The boy didn't even scream," Katiba said of Muygeno. "He just died
quietly."

Deaths like these are increasing in southern Zambia and northern Botswana,
where people are crammed in with a rising elephant population. There are no
reliable statistics on fatalities in southern Africa, but in one region of
southern Zambia alone, five people have died this year, compared with one
last year, according to Zambian press reports.

Elephants, endangered in Central Africa, are common in the south, mainly
because an international ban on ivory trading drastically cut poaching.

Today, Botswana has 151,000 elephants, and Namibia about 10,000. In southern
Zambia, the elephant population has more than doubled, from 3,000 to 7,000,
many of them "immigrants" from Zimbabwe, where poaching and hunting are
rife.

The animals capture people's imagination because they're intelligent,
emotional creatures. They mourn their dead and try to help tribe members who
get sick.

But as next-door neighbors? You pit yourself daily against highly
intelligent, dangerous thieves. You go hungry as they eat all your crops.
You're afraid to send your children to school, or your wife to the clinic.
But at some point you have to go to town for food, and you walk the dusty
red paths with fear in your heart.

If you get fed up and shoot an elephant, you'll be jailed, because the
animals are protected. They're seen as valuable to Zambia, because they
attract tourists, bringing millions in revenue.

But people aren't protected. Nor are their crops, or houses. There's no
compensation when someone is killed. So people living in elephant country
complain that governments and tourists like elephants more than people.

Albert Mumbeko, a former railway worker who's also from Katubya, lives in a
flimsy house of grass and sticks: That was the only barrier between him and
a massive bull elephant that woke the 76-year-old and his wife at midnight a
few months back.

It was gobbling down his small corn crop. Mumbeko crept out, heart beating
wildly. "I could see its eyes in the moonlight, big and fierce. It looked
very angry and aggressive. Its ears were open."

That's an elephant warning. He and his wife fled, but the elephant stomped
their house down. Then went on eating.

"We felt very angry, we felt very sad when we came back and saw our house
destroyed."

When he sees an elephant, he feels impotent fury. "We hate elephants.
They're all bad."

It's a warm October evening, a good time for elephant-spotting in Mosi O
Tunya National Park in southern Zambia. As the sky turns to slate, a group
of elephants swims across a river. Suddenly, the exhilarating sound of an
elephant trumpeting, right by the car.

Dozens of elephants meander peacefully or wallow in the water. One old bull
elephant splashes water over himself. Small elephants frolic.

One baby elephant, with mini-tusks, trots amid the matriarchal group. On
short legs, it gets a little left behind. It curls its little trunk into its
mouth and prances, breaking into a gallop to catch up with the big group.

Several open-topped safari vehicles chug alongside, as rangers exchange
radio intel on the best elephant viewing. All is quiet, except for the call
of birds, the engines and the ceaseless tweeting and clicking from the nest
of excited digital cameras.

Seasoned elephant watcher FerrelOsborn is awed by the creatures. That
doesn't mean he's sentimental about them.

"I'm fascinated by elephants," he says. "But I don't love them."

He's not the kind of conservationist who thinks that the real elephant
problem is people -- African overpopulation and habitat destruction.

He thinks that humans can live with elephants, as long as they take a few
simple precautions. One key is giving people a motive to try: At the moment,
the revenue generated by tourism doesn't trickle down to those whose
livelihoods are threatened by the animals.

His outfit, the Elephant Pepper Development Trust, hopes to preserve
elephants by helping farmers protect their crops, reducing conflict and
saving both human and animal lives.

The Zambia-based trust trains African farmers to repel elephants by using
chilies. Elephants hate chilies.

African farmers often burn chili as a repellent, but it's not enough. The
trust's method involves four simple steps, but takes a lot of work and
commitment.

The method: 1) Leave five yards of cleared space between the forest and the
fields. At night, smelling humans around, crossing the gap into a field
makes the elephants wary and nervous. 2) Plant a thick barrier of chilies
around the field. 3) Put up a fence with rope that has jangling cans (which
gives them a fright) and cloth flags coated with thick chili grease. 4) Burn
chilies, making pungent smoke.

The trust guarantees to buy back chilies grown from farmers and manufactures
its own Elephant Pepper brand chili spices and sauces, sold in southern
Africa and soon to hit the U.S. market. (They are already available to U.S.
customers via the group's website.) The profits go back into the trust.

"We say, 'We are not here to give you food or money,' " Osborn said. "
'We're here to give you an idea. It's up to you to take it up.' "

One Zambian farmer followed the method carefully and has successfully kept
elephants off his crops for three years. It was so successful that his
neighbors accused him of practicing witchcraft.

But the most important long-term solution, the foundation argues, is for
communities to stop settling and planting crops in established elephant
corridors.

"These corridors have been there for decades, so it's easier to move the
farmers rather than the corridors," Osborn said. But land use is a highly
sensitive issue, controlled by tribal chiefs, who decide who can live and
farm where. If your chief gives you land -- even in the middle of an
elephant corridor -- that's where you go. But passing elephants will gobble
the crop, and your family will be at risk of elephant attack.

The governments in the region don't do much to help farmers, according to
local aid organizations and farmers -- and the Elephant Pepper Development
Trust is too small and poorly funded to train every farmer in southern
Africa and supply chili repellent start-up kits.

Farmers, seeing few benefits flowing from tourism, resent the government's
inaction.

"The tourists come, but people here don't have safe drinking water and they
have poor schools, and they feel like they're not getting any benefit,"
Osborn said. "If the community could see that you do get a lot of money from
the tourists, I honestly think they would not mind the elephants."

Mumbeko, whose house was demolished, has his own solution: If tourists love
elephants so much, the government should fence them in.

"When I see one of those animals, I just know it wants to kill me."

robyn.dixon@latimes.com