http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October
2011 19:52
BY TATENDA CHITAGU
GUTU – Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has said his party will compensate
victims of political violence
and make the perpetrators accountable for
their deeds if he defeats
President Robert Mugabe in next year’s elections.
Addressing hundreds
of party supporters at Maungwa Business centre in Gutu
at the memorial
service of the late Public Service minister, Professor,
Eliphas
Mukonoweshuro yesterday, Tsvangirai said the MDC-T government will
make sure
that Zanu PF militia, who were responsible for political violence,
will be
punished.
Mukonoweshuro, who was also the legislator for Gutu South
constituency, died
in South Africa after he suffered heart complications.“An
MDC-T government
will not ignore victims of political
violence.
For those who were beaten, raped, had property looted
or destroyed, we are
making a commitment to heal their wounds,” said
Tsvangirai. “Those who were
killed, we will take care of their children.
This is a commitment we will
make and we will follow up on it. We have got
the records of those
affected.”
The MDC-T has said at least 200
of its supporters were killed by suspected
Zanu PF activists during the
violent 2008 elections. The Premier said the
perpetrators of political
violence would be brought to book.
“We cannot just be silent and let
the villains celebrate their actions,” he
said. Tsvangirai said his party
has been at the receiving end of political
violence at all elections and
warned of more violence in the decisive
winner-takes-all elections to be
held in the near future. The MDC-T leader
urged President Robert Mugabe to
rein in his party supporters, whom he said
fanned violence before, during
and after polls.
“We all know who brings the violence to our areas
but Zanu PF should
discipline its members,” said Tsvangirai. “Mugabe should
walk his talk when
he says no to violence.”
Mugabe has on several
forums condemned political violence but has never been
able to rein in his
supporters. Zanu PF supporters recently beat up people
at the official
opening of Parliament and invaded private properties in many
towns with
impunity.
Tsvangirai also condemned state institutions which he said were now
instigating violence against defenceless citizens.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October 2011
19:41
BY JENNIFER DUBE
RUSHINGA — Vice-president Joice Mujuru
yesterday said she is still waiting
for the report on the cause of the death
of her husband, Solomon, almost two
months after the former army general
perished in an inferno at his Beatrice
farm.
The retired army
commander died in mysterious circumstances in August, and
it is not yet
known whether he was murdered before the fire at his house or
was killed in
the inferno.
Addressing villagers in Rushinga, Mashonaland Central
province yesterday,
Mujuru said that she felt consoled when people from her
home region came in
their numbers to pay their condolences following her
husband’s death.
“Thank you for coming in your numbers to mourn your
son-in-law seven weeks
ago before we knew what really happened to him,” said
Mujuru.
“I am still waiting for an explanation.”
Mujuru said this
after touring community projects being implemented by the
Community
Technology Development Trust (CTDT) with funding from the Catholic
Relief
Services (CRS).
Soon after her husband’s death, the Vice-President
said she could not
understand how a military man could have failed to escape
a fire in a house
which had so many accessible exit points that he could
have easily used to
escape the fire.
Relatives and friends of the
Mujuru family suspect that the late general was
murdered but are not privy
to the reasons. Their suspicions have been
worsened by the long time the
police have taken to release the results of
their
investigations.
Sources said they are pushing for the exhumation of
the general’s remains so
that a second postmortem could be conducted by an
international pathologist.
“Family members and his friends in
political circles want an independent
enquiry because they have lost
confidence in investigations by the police
which have taken too long to
conclude and appear to be influenced by
politics,” said one of the
sources.
Even Members of Parliament across the political divide also
suspect foul
play and have demanded a thorough investigation. The
legislators said last
week they hoped that details of Mujuru’s death would
be made public soon to
end the anxiety that grips, not only the Mujuru
family, but the whole
nation.
Publicising the police findings would also
end widespread speculation that
the retired general was
murdered.
Early this month, Police spokesperson, senior assistant
commissioner, Wayne
Bvudzijena, said they had completed the first round of
investigations and
would soon be handing over a consolidated report to the
family and other
responsible authorities.
He did not indicate
when another round of investigations would be carried
out or the results of
the first round would be announced.
Efforts to get a comment from Bvudzijena
yesterday were fruitless.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October 2011
20:10
WINNING entries in the 2011 Cover to Cover short story writing
competition
reflects the depth of writing talent among students in the
country.
Speaking at this year’s Cover to Cover short story writing
competition
awards ceremony held at Meikles Hotel in Harare on Friday ,
Swedish
ambassador to Zimbabwe Anders Lidén lauded the country’s high
literacy rate.
Lidén, however, urged government to offer more support
to the culture
sector. “The culture sector should have the capacity to
become an income
generating industry for young people. More government
support for the sector
is needed,” said Lidén. “Writers are leaders of the
future. The culture
sector should be looked upon as an
industry.”
The competition run by The Standard newspaper attracted
entries from all 10
provinces of the country. Entries from Grade 6 and 7
pupils constituted
almost half of the entries, while the least number of
entries emanated from
form 5 and 6 students.
Alpha Media
Holdings Chief Executive Officer Raphael Khumalo said the
competition was
aimed at nurturing children’s writing talent through
rewarding creativity.
“The work that we are doing through cover to cover is
for young
people.
The process is similar to planting a seed and ensuring
that it grows and
matures,” he said. “Some of the people who have been
nurtured by cover to
cover have become writers of
repute.”
Khumalo added that the organisers were grateful for prizes
from the British
Council and the Culture Fund for printing the magazine. —BY
OUR STAFF
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October 2011 20:08
BY
TATENDA CHITAGU
MASVINGO — THE Zanu PF conference set for December in
Bulawayo will endorse
President Robert Mugabe’s candidature in next year’s
elections, a war
veterans’ leader has said.
Masvingo war veterans
provincial chairman Isaiah Muzenda told The Standard
Mugabe would not leave
office until he fulfilled his promise for total
empowerment of Zimbabweans.
“He is not going anywhere. We are going to
endorse his candidature in
Bulawayo,” said Muzenda.
“The president is yet to complete his
mandate of total empowerment through
the indigenisation programme after
successfully tackling the land issue.”
Asked about the chaotic manner in
which Zanu PF is pushing the empowerment
programme, Muzenda blamed officials
surrounding Mugabe for the problems.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October 2011 19:58
BY PATIENCE
NYANGOVE
THREE MDC-T supporters are battling for their lives at a private
clinic in
Harare after they were viciously attacked by members of
Chipangano, a terror
militia linked to Zanu PF.
Ten other MDC
supporters who were also attacked were treated and discharged.
The three who
could barely speak, were being treated for injuries ranging
from broken
ribs, broken legs and suspected a fractured skull after being
struck by
stones, iron bars and sticks. They were stabbed with screw
drivers.
The MDC-T supporters, who were waylaid by at least 50
Zanu PF youths at a
roundabout along Simon Mazorodze road, were also robbed
of their money and
mobile phones and other personal belongings before they
were left for dead
near Mukuvisi river.
The attack comes at a
time when President Robert Mugabe has been calling for
an end to political
violence, but has not been able to rein in his
supporters. Zanu PF yesterday
denied involvement in the vicious attack.
The victims said they were
attacked when coming from Rotten Row Magistrates’
Courts where, earlier in
the day, they had protested against the arrest of
MDC-T youth leader Solomon
Madzore on allegations of murdering a police
officer in Glen View earlier
this year.
The youths said the T35 truck they were riding in was
blocked when they were
approaching a roundabout near Houghton Park by a
commuter omnibus and a
white twin cab Isuzu.
Afterwards the Zanu
PF militia advanced towards them holding sticks, stones,
screw drivers and
crowbars before mercilessly attacking everyone in the T35
truck.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Prince Mwenezhi who could
hardly speak, said
he was taken to Mukuvisi River where he was beaten up
using sticks and iron
bars with others kicking him all over his
body.
“All the time they were beating me up they kept demanding that
I give them
the money I got from Harvest house,” said Mwenezhi. “There were
also
accusing me of having beaten up a police officer at the Magistrates
court.”
Another victim, Vengesai Chingoriro, also speaking from his
hospital bed,
said he had been blindfolded with his sweater before being
brutally
assaulted.
Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa
yesterday denied the
party’s youths were involved in the
attack.
He instead claimed it was the MDC-T youths who had
attacked each other.
Efforts to get a comment from the police were fruitless
yesterday.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011 12:20
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
THE South African Home Affairs Department is engaged in a slanging
match
with a refugee non-governmental organisation over the resumption of
deportation of the Zimbabwe immigrants.
South Africa has
lifted the moratorium on deportation of the immigrants,
prompting People
Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) to issue
a statement
saying it was concerned at the timing of the forced removals.
“The
deportation of Zimbabweans resumes at a very sensitive time, with
revelations in recent months of abuse of asylum seekers at refugee reception
centres compromising their right to apply for refugee status,” the
organisation said.
But co-Home Affairs minister Theresa Makone
defended her South African
counterparts saying they had done what any
government in the world would
have done.
“I do not have an issue
to raise with them yet, I will only do so if the
issue escalates,” she said.
Makone said South African authorities had
assured her that all Zimbabweans
who had applied for permits or had sought
to regularise their stay in the
neighbouring countries would be unaffected
by the
deportations.
The Home Affairs minister, who was at the Musina border
during the
interview, said there was no congestion, but they were monitoring
the events
closely.
But Passop said the renewed deportations were in
contrast to the Home
Affairs’ Director General, Mkuseli Apleni’s statements
that deportations
would only resume once the documentation project had been
completed, appeals
reviewed and the minister’s approval for the
deportations.
Apleni made these statements while addressing a parliamentary
portfolio
committee on Home Affairs recently.
Deportation
decision will distort census figures: PAssop
Passop charged that
the lifting of the moratorium had not been done in a
transparent manner, as
the Home Affairs ministry was supposed to make a
public statement on the
failed immigrants.
The NGO said its efforts to get clarity on the
number of Zimbabweans in
South Africa were being undermined by the
deportations. “Despite Passop
being reassured by South Africa’s
statistician-general, Pali Lehohla, that
it will be safe for all immigrants
to participate in the census, the
department of Home Affairs has taken a
seemingly unilateral decision,”
Passop said.
The organisation
said due to the renewed deportations “fear and paranoia”
had crept into the
immigrant community, arguing that Zimbabweans would go
underground and would
be unwilling to take part in South Africa’s national
census.
Passop claimed the move would continue “to obscure” the
actual number of
Zimbabweans living in South Africa.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011 12:18
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
Some critics of the MDC-T said intra-party violence, which has
increased
over the years, is another clear sign that the MDC-T leadership is
losing
control of its structures and could be badly exposed if elections
were
delayed.
Students, one of MDC-T’s main strategic pillars in
the democratisation
movement, are disgruntled by their exclusion from
activities of the party.
Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (Zinasu) recently
said it had suspended
ties with MDC-T after its leaders had an altercation
with its party’s
organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa at the party’s 12th
anniversary.
The students are also at loggerhead with Tsvangirai over
the buying of
luxury cars while they have no textbooks, accommodation and
food at schools
and universities. But University of Zimbabwe political
scientist John
Makumbe, who is an MDC-T activist eyeing a constituency in
Buhera, said the
party still enjoys massive support.
He said the
split in Zinasu and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
were
machinations by Zanu PF to weaken the populous party.
“This is why there is a
split in Zinasu and ZCTU,” said Makumbe. “There are
those who want to cause
confusion in the party.”
Another political analyst, Brian Raftopolous
said despite organisational
problems in the MDC-T, the party remains a force
to reckon with. He said it
would not be in the interest of MDC-T or the
country to hold polls early as
issues of security sector reform, media,
electoral reform and political
violence have not been
addressed.
“The conditions are not yet ready for elections in
Zimbabwe,” he said. “It’s
better to wait a little longer. However, the party
remains strong despite
its organisational problems here and
there.”
Mavhinga said delayed polls would give the MDC-T time to
re-organise itself.
“The MDC-T is favoured by a delayed election because it
gives them time to
reconnect with key allies and constituencies and the
greater the delay, the
higher the chances that President Mugabe would not be
a factor in that next
election,” said Mavhinga.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011 12:15
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE political zeal and verve that gripped MDC-T supporters during
its early
years of formation is fading with critics raising questions about
the party’s
ability to revive such vibrancy and support before the next
elections.
The morale of workers and students — the bedrock of MDC-T
support — has
reached its lowest ebb as they accuse the leadership, now in
government, of
neglecting them and deviating from the founding values and
principles of the
party.
Workers and students have accused MDC-T
leadership in government of joining
the Zanu PF bandwagon to enrich
themselves while ignoring their plight.
Government recently doled out US$20
million to buy luxurious vehicles for
ministers at a time when workers’
salaries remain pathetically low, clinics
remain without enough medicine;
schools run without books, while thousands
of Zimbabweans need food
assistance.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who still claims
massive support, has
denied he has lost the political will to fight the
extravagance in
government. But he rose to the defence of the
vehicles-for-chefs scheme
recently.
“There is a wrong perception
in this country that ministers, especially
those from the MDC, are now
living in luxury,” Tsvangirai said. “Do you want
ministers to go around
doing government business on bicycles?” questioned
Tsvangirai.
But his ministers have each received at least six
government vehicles since
2009. “The MDC-T is slowly alienating itself from
its support base,” said
one political analyst. “Supporters need continual
assurance that we are
together in the struggle and that should be
accompanied by deeds.”
A number of MDC-T councillors have been
fingered in corrupt activities and
are under investigation. Some have
abandoned their constituencies to live in
the posh houses they allegedly
acquired fraudulently, further angering their
supporters.
Political analyst Dewa Mavhinga said the MDC-T, and
all political leaders,
must strongly guard against the arrogance of power
and trappings that come
with being in government.
“They must
remain committed to the common cause in alliance with the person
on the
street,” said Mavhinga, a senior official with the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition (CiZC), South Africa Office.
MDC-T support base
now fragile
Critics said it would be in the best interest of MDC-T to
push for early
elections before glaring acts of incompetence, corruption and
greed are
exposed.
Events in the past few months paint a gloomy picture
for MDC-T, which could
see its support fall drastically if it fails to
reshape itself into a
pro-worker party that it was at its
birth.
This could result in supporters turning against the
leadership. But others
said despite structural problems which have resulted
in factionalism and
violence, the party remained a political force to be
reckoned with as it was
an alternative to Zanu PF, which has lost the
support of the majority
Zimbabweans.
The absence of another
credible party in the country, they said, weighed in
favour of MDC-T if
polls were to be held anytime. Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai wants
elections to be held only after Zimbabwe has achieved a
levelled playing
field, but President Robert Mugabe has declared that
elections will be held
early next year.
Mugabe has accused his rivals of stalling the
constitution-making process to
prolong the life of the unity government.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011
12:14
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — The MDC-T today launches its
presidential election campaign in
Bulawayo. MDC-T Vice-President Thokozani
Khupe will launch the campaign at
Induna grounds in Bulawayo’s Pelandaba
suburb in preparation for the
upcoming polls that President Robert Mugabe
insists should be held early
next year to end the life-span of the fragile
coalition government.
MDC-T Bulawayo provincial youth league
chairman, Bekithemba Nyathi said the
campaign was organised by the party’s
youth league in Bulawayo province. “We
are launching this campaign to show
that we are ready for any presidential
election. We have parliamentarians,
senators, councillors and mayors running
the affairs of the country, but now
is the time to finally have our leader
as the country’s president,” Nyathi
said.
MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai recently urged the nation to
pray for
peace as the country heads for elections to end the government of
national
unity (GNU). He said the campaigns for the elections are the “last
mile”
towards achieving full democracy marked by the removal of
Mugabe.
The MDC-T leader urged the nation to pray and shun political
violence ahead
of the polls. “As we embark on this last mile to full
democracy, I urge the
church and everyone committed to peace to unite in
prayer and ask God the
Almighty to bless our country,” said Tsvangirai
during a prayer meeting held
at MacDonald’s Hall, Mzilikazi Suburb, Bulawayo
recently.
In his address to the Zanu-PF central committee on
Thursday, Mugabe said he
wanted polls held next year as he was fed up with
the discord among
political parties in the inclusive
government.
“The MDC are supporters of sanctions, supporters of
failure and not success.
The failure of agriculture the better (for them),”
Mugabe was quoted as
saying. “That is why we would want to have this
creature away from the
horizon — the inclusive government. This lack of
comprehension, is the heavy
price we are paying for an incompatible marriage
born out of the 2008
political compromise.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011 12:06
By
NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — The chairman of Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA)
retired members
association, Stalin Zowa, was last week arrested and dragged
to court for
allegedly grabbing a residential property of an Indian in
Bulawayo under the
guise of black empowerment.
Zowa (59)
was arrested by police last week for evicting Naik Jayanti from
her house in
Khumalo suburb and later renting out the property.
He appeared before
Bulawayo Magistrate Tawanda Muchenwa on Thursday on
charges of unlawful
entry.
Zowa, who is represented by Hlabezulu Malinga and Job Sibanda
and
Associates, was remanded out of custody on US$100 bail to October 12. He
evicted Jayanti on September 10 last month charging that he had many
properties when many blacks in the city did not have
accommodation.
His arrest comes barely a week after police in the
city also arrested a
number of Zanu-PF youths, among them, the party’s youth
league secretary for
economic affairs, Fundani Dewa, for allegedly grabbing
buildings from whites
and Indians in Bulawayo.
The arrests and
eviction of Zanu PF youths from buildings they grabbed has
however, sparked
divisions among members of the provincial executive.
Zanu PF Bulawayo
provincial chairman, Isaac Dakamela, publicly disowned the
youths as
criminals while other senior provincial party members are said to
be against
the arrest of their party cadres.
The arrests have triggered fresh
attempts by angry Zanu PF youths to remove
Dakamela from power, accusing him
of protecting interests of members of the
white community.
Zowa
backs Mugabe for presidency
The former ZNA officer, Zowa, recently said
his organisation backs President
Robert Mugabe in upcoming elections and
insisted on removal of sanctions to
guarantee free and fair
polls.
“We want the elections to be held this year because there is a
lot of
discord and indecision in the inclusive government, but if they are
held
before the illegal economic sanctions are removed, the outcome will not
be
fair,” Zowa recently said.
Zowa, who runs a number of
businesses in the city, including Jameson Pool
and Construction Company, was
also ordered to report twice a week on Mondays
and Fridays to Donnington
Police Station and not to interfere with state
witnesses.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October 2011
16:37
BY WONGAI ZHANGAZHA IN WASHINGTON DC
AICO Africa Ltd, one of
the leading companies in the country’s cotton
sector, says it lost millions
of dollars because of unfair business
practices by Chinese investors who he
accused of clandestinely buying cotton
from contracted farmers. In an
interview in Washington DC on Thursday, Pat
Devenish, Aico group chief
executive officer told Standardbusiness his
company lost about US$10 million
dollars last year after Sino-Zimbabwe
allegedly purchased cotton from
farmers contracted by the local industry.
“I think we lost US$10 million
following farmers breach selling to
(Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings) Sino-Zim who
had not invested in the production. It
was in March 2010 that we reported a
loss of US$10 million. That is a lot of
money,” Devenish said.
In
July last year, Zimbabwe cotton players took steps to stop SinoZim from
using political muscle to allegedly purchase cotton from farmers contracted
by other companies in the industry.
In court papers filed at the
High Court, the Cotton Ginners Association of
Zimbabwe (CGAZ) accused
Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings of using “political gurus” —
including Zanu PF
ministers and party youths — to buy the crop from farmers
contracted with
members of the CGAZ.
The CGAZ represents the interests of local
companies involved in the
production and buying of seed cotton as well as
the ginning and marketing of
the product.
Represented by Scanlen
& Holderness law firm, CGAZ accused Sino-Zimbabwe
Holdings of buying
cotton at inflated prices from growers who signed
contracts with its members
throughout the country.
Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings was operating in
Gokwe, Kadoma, Mhangura, Mount
Darwin, Bindura, Guruve, Mutoko and
Raffingora. Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings,
however, rubbished CGAZ’s accusations,
arguing in an opposing affidavit that
the applicant “is scared of
competition” and was abusing the courts.
Sino Zimbabwe director Jimmy
Zerenie said the company had not induced anyone
to do business with it and
had not purchased any contracted cotton.
“The applicant has various
other remedies available to it which includes but
not limited to suing for
breach of contract if there is such a breach
between applicant and its
contracted farmers.”
“The First respondent has not induced any
contracted growers to breach the
law. If anything, the first respondent has
complied with the law and has
operated in a very transparent way,” read
Zerenie’s affidavit.
He said the application was misleading the court
and that there was no
evidence placed before the court to substantiate the
allegations of
political interference.
However, the High Court
ruled that the matter was not urgent.
Devenish told Standardbusiness
that although contract farming with
small-scale holders was profitable,
recording a US$7 million profit in March
2011, side marketing remained the
biggest problem.
“You will get a company like Cottco or Cargill
spending a lot of money
funding the production of cotton only to discover
that someone who hasn’t
invested in the production of cotton will then be
licensed to buy.
“So really, that is why statutory instrument 142 is
so important because
what that does, it says you can only buy cotton if you
have invested in its
production. So that’s really an important issue to us,”
he said.
Section 14 of Statutory Instrument 142 of 2009 makes it
obligatory for
contracted growers to sell their cotton seed to the company
that supported
them in terms of the contracts.
Members of CGAZ
are all signed up as contractors and buyers with the Cotton
Marketing
Technical Committee in terms of the law.
The law states that seed
cotton produced by a grower in terms of a contract
with a company can only
be sold to the contracted company.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October
2011 16:25
BY WONGAI ZHANGAZHA IN WASHINGTON DC
THE Zimbabwe
private business sector has told the World Bank and the US
State Department
that sanctions targeted at certain individuals in the
country should be
removed as they have a collateral damage on their
businesses. The American
Business Association of Zimbabwe (Abaz) represented
by a number of its
members last week met influential American officials
ahead of the October
5-7 US-Africa business summit held in Washington DC.
Group financial
director of Paramount Group, an integrated clothing and
manufacturing
organisation, Jeremy Youmans, told American investors at a
“Doing business
in Zimbabwe” forum last week that Abaz had met with
influential American
officials explaining to them how sanctions were
affecting their
businesses.
He said: “We arrived on Sunday and spent the last two
days meeting
representatives of facilitation organisations, World Bank and
the (US) State
Department as well. We were raising concerns that sanctions
were a problem
to us because although they are specifically targeted they
have a collateral
damage effect.
“So what are we doing about it?
We are raising those issues to the policy
makers to make them aware that
they are causing us problems.”
Youmans said there was also a general
misconception by some American
companies that they could not do business
with Zimbabwe and this proved a
challenge for his company.
“At my
own level and even at our company, we have three cases now of
American
businesses that have told us — sorry we cannot supply you directly.
With the
help of the embassy, those are being sorted out and some, we have
managed to
sort them out ourselves,” he said.
Abaz membership list has
organisations like Deloitte Chartered Accountants,
Aon Zimbabwe, Coca Cola
Central Africa, Meikles Hotel, OK Zimbabwe, Western
Union, Imara and
PricewaterhouseCoopers among others.
Businessman Fred Mtandah said it
was high time that the private sector
lobbied for the removal of the
sanctions.
“The private sector was just watching on the sidelines
when everything just
collapsed during the economic meltdown, but because of
dollarisation, the
powers of government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to
print money and
finance itself has been reduced,” Mtandah
said.
“Like any other country, now government has to rely on taxes
and duties for
revenue and it is with that in mind business then realised
that it is time
for them to use their influence to lobby. They have to find
a legitimate
source of income. Zimbabwe needs a vibrant business hence the
getting
together of a number of businesses in our
country.”
Mtandah said sanctions, though they were targeted, ended up
affecting
ordinary Zimbabweans and businesses one way or the
other.
“Without actually participating in the party sponsored
anti-sanctions
campaign, business realised that there was need to engage the
international
community on that. We are lobbying for their removal without
involving
ourselves in those aspects of politics,” he said.
“For
example, two financial institutions ZB Bank and Agribank, if any person
in
the Diaspora transfers money to a company or an individual who banks with
one of those institutions that money is automatically
seized.
“That is the collateral damage of the sanctions on the
ordinary person and
the business argument is that the international
community has been promoting
rural agriculture in Zimbabwe and there is no
other financial institution
capable to finance agriculture than Agribank,”
he said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 08 October 2011 16:22
BY NDAMU
SANDU
GOVERNMENT is in talks with Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines to
lure
them into Zimbabwe, according to Civil Aviation Association of Zimbabwe
(CAAZ) chief executive officer David Chawota.
The move to lure new
players into Zimbabwe is part of a two-pronged approach
to make the country
an accessible destination.
There are also attempts to lure airlines
that used to fly into the country
but left citing the route as
unviable.
Reputable airlines such as British Airways, Swiss Air,
Lufthansa, KLM,
Emirates and Air France among others, stopped flying into
the country over
the past 10 years saying it had become
unviable.
“We are still engaging those (airlines) that used to fly to
Zimbabwe. We are
talking with new airlines such as Qatar and Singapore,”
Chawota said.
“Maintenance of dialogue is good enough. This is what
has been happening
with Emirates, we have been courting them for a long
time.”
Emirates recently announced that it would fly into Zimbabwe
starting
February next year. The airline is exhibiting at this year’s travel
and
tourism fair, Sanganai/Hlanganani which ends on
Tuesday.
Qatar Airways flies to over 100 destinations worldwide. It
was voted the
airline of the year for 2011 in the Skytrax industry audit.
Qatar Airways
and Emirates will compete to bring tourists from the Middle
East into the
country whereas Singapore would bring traffic from
Asia.
British Airways, KLM and Air France among others will connect
Europe to
Zimbabwe.
Tourism players say the more the airline fly
into the country, the easier it
becomes in marketing Zimbabwe as a tourism
destination.
Zimbabwe has become an expensive place to visit because
there are no direct
flights from Europe, Middle East and Asia into the
country.
This means that passengers have to connect via South Africa
and in most
cases becomes an extra cost to the passenger.
In
tourism terms if the country is inaccessible, it becomes difficult to
market
that destination.
Accessibility is one of the 4As of destination marketing.
The others are
attraction, accommodation and advertising.
The
tourism industry is optimistic that the return of Emirates will spur
other
airlines to fly into the country.
“It is a big boost and we hope this will
inspire other airlines like BA
(British Airways) to fly to Harare,” said
Karikoga Kaseke, Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority CEO.
Kaseke said when
more airlines fly into a destination it creates competition
which is healthy
for tourism.
“Once there is choice, passengers can travel more because fares
will come
down,” Kaseke said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09
October 2011 12:32
I do not care much about the revelations of the
WikiLeaks; neither do I
worry about alleged United States sinister motives
on Zimbabwe. This is so
because the US, like any other sovereign state, is
entitled to whatever
means necessary for its existence and
survival.
What concerns us, as Zimbabweans, is the exposure of the
calibre of
politicians that we have at the moment. Like it or not, the
change that we
want and aspire for is still very far away.
We
have politicians whose wisdom and capability to transform this country
from
the current precipice remains highly questionable. WikiLeaks has helped
us
realise how politicians of this land are people of little
wisdom.
The political arena in Zimbabwe needs urgent and complete
overhaul. Zimbabwe
is currently hijacked by people who have subjugated the
electorate into
believing that they are the only viable candidates available
to represent us
in Parliament.
Politicians of this land from
across the political divide are hypocrites and
a brood of vipers that smile
to their leaders and the entire nation during
the day and bites them during
the night.
The damage has already been done. We have men and
women who forcibly want
the entire nation to believe in what they themselves
have never believed.
This is like the preacher who delivers sermons daily
that he does not
subscribe to.
What leaders of political parties
do should never be kept secret. Public
office is not personal or party
politics. We are talking about the people
whom the nation has bestowed trust
to occupy the highest offices of the
land.
We need to know
what judgement they make of themselves and those around
them. We cannot have
only the media giving us updates about WikiLeaks; what
is President
RobertMugabe or Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s position on
their party’s
colleagues who doubt their leadership competency?
I believe the
WikiLeaks revelations are more scandalous than the WillowGate,
the Tracy
Mutinhiri saga or even the Elias Mudzuri and Lucia Matibenga
conspiracies.
Let the same harshness that befell these individuals be seen
if our
political leaders’ pledges to the tenets of justice and fairness are
to be
taken seriously.
Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions and
beliefs but joining or
even forming of any given group like a political
party is an indicator of
commonality and sharing of similar norms, values
and beliefs by a given
group. Politics is not just like any other
business.
Politicians need to be honest and clear in what they
believe in, because
these are the very same people who are entrusted with
the nation’s heritage
and wealth.
Both Zanu PF and MDC-T are
composed of ambitious politicians who daily
specialise in strategically
positioning themselves to overtake those ahead
of them in positions of power
rather than charting ideologies of the parties
that they purport to
represent.
It is going to be difficult for the ambassadors of the
so-called
revolutionary party to stand in front of a rational crowd and
chant slogans
of a party whose leader they regard with contempt. Any
rational Zimbabwean
will not take the current empowerment rhetoric
seriously. No one will take
heed of the concept of rebranding
Zimbabwe.
This is so because those that present themselves paragons
of virtue are
seriously compromised. The so-called “change team” will not
bring change any
more. The supposed party of excellency has become a party
of failure.
This is so because those we thought to be brilliant
and young leaders have
proven to be crooks. We cannot trust what they preach
any more. They are
busy discrediting a leader who has bestowed his trust on
them.
If our country had been serious about its politics such as
practiced in
genuine democratic states, we could have witnessed a series of
resignations
by all people exposed in WikiLeaks by now. Regrettably, our
politicians do
not have shame and they don’t give a damn.
BY
ALEXANDER RUSERO CHARI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011 12:29
Government
has so far spent a whopping US$40 million on travel expenses
alone. That was
the shocking news delivered by Finance minister Tendai Biti
to MPs in
Parliament on Thursday.
To drive his point home, Biti said with that
amount Zimbabwe could construct
the much-needed electric railway line from
Gweru to Bulawayo. The benefits,
in the form of employment and business that
could be generated by the rail
track for the bankrupt National Railways of
Zimbabwe and companies moving
their goods, are too numerous to
mention.
But these benefits can only remain a pipedream if government
continues to
waste resources on unnecessary and unhelpful trips abroad.
Biti’s revelation
merely confirms what is in the public domain. Since the
beginning of the
year, President Robert Mugabe has undertaken trips to Asia
that have drained
an already overburdened fiscus. He is reported to have
demanded as much as
US$3 million from treasury each time he has gone
abroad.
Mugabe has also commandeered Air Zimbabwe to fly him to Asia
even when
pilots were on strike. This year alone, Mugabe has gone to
Singapore a
record seven times, allegedly to seek medical attention. Apart
from these
personal trips, Mugabe has also travelled to international
meetings with
bloated delegations.
For observers, it defies logic
that Mugabe needs to be accompanied by 100
officials to attend a United
Nations meeting in New York. These officials,
from both Zanu PF and the MDC
parties, get hefty allowances for accompanying
the President.
In
light of Biti’s appeal, MPs need to tell cabinet in no uncertain terms
that
money wasted on useless trips abroad could be better channelled to more
needy sectors such as health, housing and food procurement for millions
facing starvation.
The MPs should also amend the Public Finance
Management Act so that a
powerful budget office is able to monitor
government expenditure.
They should go the extra mile and make it
illegal for the President or any
government official to abuse public
resources through making personal trips
abroad.
Travelling abroad should
be regulated and only be limited to crucial
meetings. And it should be
subject to availability of funds.
Quote of the week
Let us
work for a culture of peace and non-violence and let us take this
message to
our provinces and districts and the people will welcome that,”
President
Mugabe addressing Zanu PF central committee last week.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011
12:26
I got the missive below from Marshall Ngwenya a reader from
Bulawayo:
Thanks for your piece on litter. I stay in Bulawayo and it’s
not any
different. I see very beautiful smartly-dressed ladies throwing used
tissue-paper on the pavement and they just spoil their outlook. I hope we
can change this as a nation.
He was referring to my column last week
in which I bemoaned the littering in
our cities and on our highways. This
little letter from Bulawayo shows that
littering is indeed a national
problem. But what is heartening is that
people who wrote to me and those I
socialise with have said they are very
willing to make a
difference.
Hazel Magumise a senior officer in the Ministry of Trade
and Commerce called
and urged a national crusade to keep our country clean.
Last Sunday morning
as I was driving to the shops, the motorist just in
front of me threw an
empty beer can onto the road. Guess what? I trailed him
until he reached his
destination.
He was a lovely gentleman
and we had a chat. Afterwards he said he realised
the foolishness of his
habit and would stop it with immediate effect. He
would also talk about it
with any motorist he saw throwing litter out their
window.
But my
most heartening experience was the immediate behaviour change by
patrons at
my local. Whenever they need to smoke they leave the bar; so the
bar is now
a non-smoking haven. But there is another little problem with
this; they are
still dropping their stubs on the paths and the lawn. I will
kindly ask the
proprietors to provide ashtrays and little bins outside the
bar.
The other day while driving in town I saw three ladies
dressed in immaculate
red dresses; they wore gumboots and elbow long gloves.
They were cleaning
the streets. Obviously, they were too few to cope but it
was heart-warming
to see that the city fathers are doing something about the
litter.
But another thought struck me! What do litterbugs think about
these women
and men who clean our streets? Do they respect them? Do they see
them as
human beings who should pride themselves in their jobs? One thing
was
certain; litterbugs are contemptuous people who think some lesser humans
should go around picking after them.
This I think is a remnant of
our colonial mentality. During the colonial
days street cleaners were
contemptuously referred to as scavengers by their
white bosses who had a
false sense of superiority.
The term in itself used correctly is
not scornful. Any dictionary will
define scavenging as both a carnivorous
and herbivorous feeding behaviour
in which individual scavengers search out
dead animal and dead plant biomass
on which to feed. Scavengers play an
important role in the ecosystem by
contributing to the decomposition of
dead animal and plant material.
In Zimbabwe people ignorantly look
down upon scavenging animals and birds
such as dogs, hyenas, jackals, crows
and vultures. The cleaning role they
play to our ecosystem is all but
forgotten. So during the colonial era when
city cleaners were referred to as
scavengers people associated them with
these scorned animals and
birds.
This is what bore the attitude that we can throw our
litter and leftovers on
the pavements because scavengers will come along and
clean after us. It’s a
wrong attitude. These women and men are honourable
people and they deserve
all our respect.
Their job is
maintaining the cleanliness of our cities and towns. They work
from the
assumption that our cities are clean; all they have to do is to
maintain the
cleanliness. But litterbugs have reversed this thinking; they
work from the
warped premise that cities must be dirty so that they can be
cleaned.
It
will take a while to change this attitude because it seems to be
ingrained
in our collective national psyche. Two ministries must play a key
role in
banishing this attitude. The ministry responsible for the
environment must
come to the forefront and lead in the cleanliness crusade.
But more
importantly the Ministry of Education should see to it that we
“catch them
early” so to speak and design curricula that emphasise value of
a clean
environment targeted at children from grade zero.
Now and again we
see the Minister of Environment, Francis Nhema and
officials from his
ministry, dressed in new dustcoats joining groups that
clean our cities for
their own selfish marketing purposes. His efforts to
lend credibility to
these self-serving groups and to himself do not mean a
thing if there isn’t
a sustainable, practicable national policy on cleaning
the
environment.
Without education these half-hearted attempts by the
minister to convey a
message on the environment come to nought. This is why
we should see Nhema
work closely with David Coltart at the Ministry of
Education.
Zimbabwe has recently seen shadowy groups sprouting all
over town and
involving themselves in activities that disturb public peace.
The most
notorious of these is Mbare-based Chipangano. We also have youths
who call
themselves Upfumi Kuvadiki who advocate, through unsavoury means,
youth
economic empowerment.
Like Chipangano, they have become
a law unto themselves. We also have
belligerent war veterans associations,
particularly the one led by Jabulani
Sibanda which is rampaging across the
countryside terrorising peace-loving
civilians.
What if they
transformed themselves into peaceful outfits that began by
cleaning the
areas in which they live? Mbare would be the cleanest suburb if
the
Chipangano thugs cleaned it with the same enthusiasm and gusto with
which
they beat up people.
When I checked the word scavenger on an online
encyclopaedia I found the
following fascinating:
“A Scavenger can
also refer to someone who is a member of scavenger, a group
of people who
are trying to reduce the amount of waste that they produce by
giving away
their unwanted/redundant things to other people rather than
disposing of
them.
Most of them are within the UK but there are members from
all over the
world. Scavenger is just one of the many groups, that are
springing up
around the world, involved in the free gifting movement (gift
economy).” We
should see such groups mushrooming in Zimbabwe; the best place
to begin
would be in the streets in which we live.
BY NEVANJI
MADANHIRE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 09 October 2011
12:23
Zimbabwe is up for its first review during the current cycle of the
Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a mechanism of the United Nations Human
Rights Council, under which all United Nations (UN) member-states report on
measures taken to push towards the respect of “Red” Rights (Civil and
Political) and the progressive realisation of “Green” Rights
(Socio-Economic) in their countries.
The report is made to
the UN Human Rights Council, with scrutiny coming from
fellow UN members.
Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa will, tomorrow,
deliver to the UN,
Zimbabwe’s human rights scorecard.
A reading of the report, however,
shows that there is a clear attempt to
gloss over and subvert the truth of
the situation over the last four years,
and a self-righteous allocation of
blame.
This allocation of blame, for an otherwise poor human
rights record, on
sanctions, is the sine qua non of the report that
Chinamasa is in Geneva to
sell. This is clearly discernible from the fact
that it is part of the
starting premise in the government’s report, and is
part of its conclusion,
as well as a major element of the challenges that
the state cites for
non-compliance and fulfilment of some
rights.
Several government apologists have, over the weeks, abused
the opinion pages
of public newspapers, strongly advancing this half-baked
argument, which
fails to explain how the “sanctions” have led to sustained
assaults on civil
and political rights, while also failing to engage the
issues around lack of
transparency and accountability in the administration
and exploitation of
the country’s vast mineral wealth.
One of the
cardinal rules to progress is that you have to face the hard
facts and then
develop a plan for dealing with them. The harsh reality is
that there is
wanton disrespect for human rights in Zimbabwe, and
unfortunately a lot of
these violations are state-sponsored.
The bigger tragedy is that
when opportunities like the UPR come up, the
government turns a blind eye to
the facts, choosing instead to grandstand
and point accusing fingers at
everyone but themselves. Where there is no
honest reflection, and
acknowledgement of the shortcomings, whatever
recommendations are posited
will not work, as they will be based on a
foundation of lies.
One
of the things that the government report cites is the indigenisation
drive,
as a key policy and strategy seeking to “Correct the colonial
imbalances by
facilitating access to, and ownership of means of production
by the
indigenous Zimbabweans”.
It is difficult to argue against the
notion of indigenisation and
empowerment, as a policy, when the sponsors are
genuine. In our case
however, the reality is that this noble agenda is
driven by a money-hungry
elite, whose motivation is less the attainment of
economic empowerment for
“the people”, but more to further fatten the
bustling pockets of the fat
cats in government and their praise
singers.
The agendas are selfish, poorly thought out, and in
themselves, are spanners
in the works towards progressive realisation of
socio-economic rights for
the people of Zimbabwe, in their current
construct.
The real human rights challenges in Zimbabwe are known to
its citizens, and
those who have been following the country’s developments
over the last
decade or so. If as the report states, Zimbabwe is “desirous
of promoting
and upholding human rights for all”, here is what the state
must do:
Respect civil liberties — Allow people to assemble,
interact, associate and
speak freely.
Grant us our rights to water,
power, education and health.
Dismantle the infrastructures of
violence, including vigilante groups like
Chipangano, that have been at the
centre of torture, summary killings,
enforced disappearances, arbitrary
arrests, cohesion and other forms of
politically motivated human rights
infractions.
Stop abusing our security sector, and develop them into
a non-partisan
professional security sector that doesn’t meddle in the
political affairs of
civilians, and is not used, as the blunt instrument of
choice, in dealing
physically with perceived enemies of the
establishment.
Develop genuine empowerment policies that are not
aimed at expanding the
patronage base of those who occupy the state, or
which only serve small
political and economic elite, as this does nothing
for the progressive
realisation of socio-economic and cultural
rights.
Remove the “sanctions” that the state has placed on the
people, which have
manifested themselves in the shrinking of democratic
space, and the wanton
disrespect of human rights (including rights to title
and property).
Repeal and amend laws that give life to these
“sanctions” on our people like
Posa, Aippa and the Criminal Law Codification
Act.
Remove the “economic embargoes” that corruption, cronyism, primitive
looting, government largesse and political patronage have placed on our
people’s access to the economy and a more prosperous life.
The
government needs to stop lying to the world, its people and itself,
because
perpetuation of these lies is tantamount to building a house on
sand – it
will not stand, and will sooner rather than later be washed
away.
BY MAcDONALD LEWANIKA
