The Archbishop of Canterbury was greeted by
thousands of rapturous Anglicans yesterday as he launched a fierce attack on the
"mindless and Godless" assaults on them by a renegade bishop backed by Robert
Mugabe.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams conducts a church service in HararePhoto:
AP
Dr Rowan Williams,
who is due to meet Mr Mugabe on Monday, called on the 87-year-old president to
end the suffering of Anglicans, who have been locked out of their churches and
attacked by police wielding tear gas and batons.
He lamented the
"injustice and the arrogance of false brethren" who had seized church property
but told his audience that they did not need buildings if they had strong
"spiritual foundations".
And he appealed
for all Zimbabweans
to shun violence and bloodshed in their "great and troubled country" ahead of
political elections expected to take place next year.
Dr Williams's
visit to Zimbabwe is the most contentious of his three-country trip which also
takes in Malawi and Zambia.
He rarely
intervenes in foreign affairs or politics and is known to have agonised over how
far to go in his criticism of the president and the excesses of his followers in
yesterday's sermon. It was delivered at a Eucharist service for 15,000 faithful
who squeezed into every available space of a dingy concrete basketball stadium
in central Harare which had been spruced up for the occasion with satin
sheeting, palm leaves and crane flowers.
Before the Archbishop's arrival, the crowd's
excitement built as choirs sang and danced to the rhythm of African
drums.
As he processed in
along a red carpet through a fug of incense and behind Archbishops and Bishops
from all corners of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, the cavernous
arena erupted in earsplitting ululating.
Many of the
assembled Anglicans now attend church services in gardens, sports centres and
tents. Their ordeal started when Nolbert Kunonga, the former Bishop of Harare,
split from the church over the ordination of homosexuals.
Excommunicated by
the central authority, he declared himself Archbishop of the Province of Harare
and, backed by the partial courts and Mr Mugabe's security forces, laid claim to
all church property. In recent months, he has turned his attention to mission
schools, clinics and orphanages.
Dr Williams told
his audience they had inspired Christians around the world with their endurance.
"You know how
those who by their greed and violence have refused the grace of God to try to
silence your worship and frustrate your witness in the churches and schools and
hospitals of this country," he said.
"But you also know
what Jesus' parable teaches us so powerfully – that the will of God to invite
people to his feast is so strong that it can triumph even over these mindless
and Godless assaults."
He never mentioned
President Mugabe by name, instead making reference to "political leaders and
rulers", and to the destruction wrought by them on Zimbabwe by the violent land
reform and rampant inflation of the last decade.
"We have seen
years in which the land has not been used to feed people and lies idle; and we
have begun to see how mineral wealth can become a curse – as it so often has
been in Africa."
He conceded that
colonisers had treated Africa badly, but added: "How tragic that this should be
replaced by another kind of lawlessness, where so many live in daily fear of
attack if they fail to comply with what the powerful require of them.
"The message we
want to send from this Eucharistic celebration is that we do not have to live
like that – in terror, in bloodshed. God has given us another way."
Speaking to The
Daily Telegraph earlier, Dr Kunonga dismissed Dr Williams as a "homosexual" who
has fomented splits in the Anglican church around the world because he has
failed to take a position on the issue.
A spokesman for
Robert Mugabe has refused to confirm whether the president will meet Dr Williams
but said he had "many issues" he wanted to raise with the Archbishop.
"The president
wants this man of God to clarify why his Anglican Church thinks homosexuality is
good for us and why it should be prescribed for us," George Charamba said.
All
smiles ... Archbishop of Canterbury emerges from meeting with
Mugabe
10/10/2011
00:00:00
by Fanuel Jongwe I
AFP
THE Archbishop of
Canterbury said he backed Zimbabwe's embattled Anglicans during a two-hour
meeting with President Robert Mugabe on Monday.
The Anglican
Church in Zimbabwe has been divided since breakaway bishop Nolbert Kunonga was
excommunicated in 2007 for allegedly inciting violence in sermons supporting
Mugabe's party. But Kunonga says he left the Anglican Church because of its
position on same sex marriages.
"I came to
Zimbabwe a few days ago with the hope of negotiating with the president the
concerns facing the Anglican Church," Williams told reporters in brief remarks
as he left the meeting.
He added: "I am
standing in solidarity to show those concerns this afternoon and to show His
Excellency a dossier of those concerns. He (Mugabe) expressed concern and said
he will speak with Kunonga.
"Anglicans must
be allowed to carry out their mission in peace."
Kunonga led
demonstrations against Williams' visit on Sunday, saying the trip to Malawi,
Zambia and Zimbabwe was a "crusade for gays".
"Rowan Williams
erred by accepting homosexuality and that has broken up the Church all over,"
Kunonga said on Monday, a day after his supporters held demonstrations
denouncing the Englishman.
"It's sad, they
should repent, it needs Williams himself to repent. He is the one who has
divided the Church.”
Williams said
Kunonga's accusations are "fictitious" and a "distracting tactic to take
people's attention from the real problem."
"The Anglican
Church doesn't allow homosexuality, but places like the U.S. and Canada have a
more relaxed atmosphere. But we regard homosexuals as human beings deserving of
love," Williams said.
The Archbishop
later met with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. He is scheduled to leave for
Zambia on Tuesday.
Williams, the
spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, used a sermon on Sunday to denounce
"godless" attacks by Kunonga’s followers against the Church faithful in
Zimbabwe, where they have been chased from cathedrals, schools and
orphanages.
With the help of
the courts, Kunonga has seized all of the Anglican Church's property in Harare
and laid claim to 3,800 properties in Zimbabwe and neighbouring
countries.
The renegade
bishop, who has praised Catholic Mugabe as a "true son of God", has also
endorsed Mugabe’s condemnation of homosexuality.
Ahead of Monday’s
meeting, Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba said: “The President wants this man
of God to clarify why his Anglican Church thinks homosexuality is good for us
and why it should be prescribed for us.”
Mission ... Archbishop Williams
arrives at State House on Monday to meet President
Mugabe
The
Archbishop of Canterbury issued a stinging attack on Robert Mugabe
yesterday, telling Zimbabweans they deserved better than to live under his
reign of terror and violence.
Aides described Dr Rowan Williams as
giving the “sermon of his career” during his controversial visit to
Zimbabwe.
He told a congregation of more than 15 000 Anglicans that the
tyrant’s “lawless” regime was no better than the colonial misrule it had
replaced.
Addressing a cheering crowd in a sports hall less than a mile
from the headquarters of the country’s ruling Zanu-PF party, Dr Williams
said the country’s natural wealth had been squandered and that the
population lives in “daily fear of attack”.
The trenchant criticism
came less than 24 hours before a possible meeting with Mugabe. Dr Williams
said: “For a long period in this country, an anxious ruling class clung on
to the power they had seized at the expense of the indigenous people and
ignored their rights and their hopes for dignity and political
freedom.
“How tragic that this should be replaced by another kind of
lawlessness, where so many live in daily fear of attack if they fail to
comply with what the powerful require of them.”
Dr Williams did not
mention Mugabe by name as he delivered his Eucharist sermon.
But the
implications of his message were clear.
He said: “How strange it is that
we so often behave - yes, even we who are Christians - as though we cannot
survive unless we silence all voices of challenge or criticism.
“And
God has given so many gifts to this land. It has the capacity to feed all
its people and more. Its mineral wealth is great. But we have seen years in
which the land has not been used to feed people and lies idle.
“And we
have begun to see how this mineral wealth can become a curse, as it so often
has been in Africa, as people are killed and communities destroyed in the
fight for diamonds that will for ever be marked with the blood of the
innocent.”
Dr Williams, who was speaking in the capital, Harare, is
believed to have been determined not to hand Mugabe any opportunity to turn
his visit into a propaganda coup.
A senior aide said: “[The sermon]
was all him, all of his own work and exactly what he wanted to say. It was
powerful - by his standards or by any standards.”
Dr Williams’s
sermon follows years of turbulence for Zimbabwe’s Anglican church. Since
2008 Mugabe has publicly backed former bishop Nolbert Kunonga, whose
breakaway Christian group has seized dozens of churches and orchestrated a
campaign of intimidation against Anglican worshippers.
Yesterday Kunonga
marked the Archbishop’s arrival in the capital by attending a stage-managed
protest at St Mary’s Cathedral.
Standing in front of 1 000 supporters, he
said Williams’s visit was a “crusade for gays”.
“This is a
demonstration against homosexuality. I told people to come and demonstrate
if they wanted,” he said. “Rowan Williams erred by accepting homosexuality
and that has broken up the church all over.” Kunonga even accused the
Archbishop of being gay.
But Dr Williams dismissed the faction as one
motivated by greed and violence.
He told his congregation: “You know
how those who by their greed and violence have refused the grace of God try
to silence your worship and frustrate your witness in the churches and
schools and hospitals of this country.”
It is thought that Mugabe has
granted Dr Williams an audience and the pair were expected to meet this
morning. But last night there was speculation that Mugabe could refuse to
honour the engagement in light of the Archbishop’s criticism. - Daily Mail
Archbishop of
Canterbury visits Zimbabwe's president with a message about the plight of
the country's Anglicans
David Smith in Harare guardian.co.uk,
Monday 10 October 2011 19.56 BST
It may have been the tea, scones
and jam that put him at ease as the Archbishop of Canterbury came face to
face with Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe.
Although the trappings
at the presidential state house were akin to an English vicarage, Dr Rowan
Williams had come with a pointed message about the plight of Zimbabwe's
Anglicans.
Flanked by regional church leaders, he presented Mugabe with a
dossier of alleged abuses perpetrated against worshippers over the past four
years.
In response, the president delivered a history lesson on
Anglo-Zimbabwean relations, detailed his own religious upbringing and
reminded Williams that the Church of England is "a breakaway group" from the
Catholic church. Despite persistent rumours over the 87-year-old president's
health, Williams commented: "He's on top of things
intellectually."
The meeting was the culmination of the archbishop's
two-day visit to Zimbabwe that saw him condemn lawlessness and violence in a
sermon cheered by thousands on Sunday. He has pledged support to Anglicans
who have been arrested, beaten and locked out of churches by supporters of
Nolbert Kunonga, a renegade bishop loyal to Mugabe.
Williams arrived
at the state house in Harare in a police convoy. He walked up a red carpet,
passing two stuffed lions as he entered through giant wooden
doors.
Williams and his delegation sat down for 90 minutes in what one
witness described as "a grand room" with pale blue damask curtains and
velvet armchairs. Tea was served on fine china and included scones and
jam.
The archbishop said later: "People say that sometimes you get a long
lecture, nothing much else; others have said he'll be very charming, and so
we didn't know what to anticipate. In fact it was a very serious
conversation with real exchange."
Williams was allowed to speak
first, outlining the dossier which claims that, since 2007, Anglican
congregations have suffered systematic harassment and persecution at the
hands of the police, including false imprisonment, violence and denial of
access to churches, schools, clinics and mission stations.
Williams
told a subsequent press conference: "We have asked him that he use his
powers as head of state to guarantee the security of those of his citizens
who worship with the Anglican church and put an end to unacceptable and
illegal behaviour.
"We are proud of our church here and our people who
have suffered so much but continue to serve with great enormous energy, with
love and with hope. I think the scale of intimidation documented in the
dossier was something with which he was not entirely familiar."
He
added: "It was a very candid meeting; disagreement was expressed clearly but
I think in a peaceable manner."
Asked if Mugabe had been receptive, he
replied: "No president is ever going to say, 'I don't care about people
being beaten up'. But I think there's a real concern that this is a running
sore, that he and others in government would like to see it sorted. He was
fairly clear that he and his people would want to talk to
Kunonga."
He said Kunonga's derision of the central church as promoting
homosexuality was "throwing sand in the air" and aimed at "distracting
people from real issues".
"In the US and in Canada there is a more
relaxed attitude to these questions but these are provinces which do not
represent the general mind of the communion on this matter. The Anglican
communion worldwide holds the position that whatever our views on the
morality of homosexual behaviour, we regard homosexual persons simply as
human beings, as deserving of dignity and respect."Like others who have met
Mugabe before him, Williams did not escape a lecture, which was critical of
the Labour government elected in 1997 and what Mugabe claims are devastating
EU sanctions. "We had the history of Anglo-Zimbabwean relations from 1 May
1997 onwards in some detail. So I don't know. I think if there's a problem
that is soluble without loss of political face maybe he feels he can do
something about this.
"I said at the end that what we'd all like to
see is Zimbabwe fulfilling the potential that it showed in the early years
of independence. He's very clear that he blames everybody else for what's
gone wrong since."
Religion was also discussed. Williams recalled: "He
talked about his Catholic upbring and I think continuing occasional Catholic
practise, and reminded us that the Church of England is a breakaway group
from the Roman Catholic church."
Asked if Mugabe struck him as a
Christian man, the archbishop observed: "I could answer it on the basis of
what I've read about him, or I could answer it on the basis of this
afternoon, and this afternoon I've not much to go on except what he said. On
the basis of what I've read about him, 'Blessed are the peacemakers' is the
obvious thing to say about him."The Zimbabwe trip has proved controversial
in some quarters with objections that it could give Mugabe political
capital. However Williams, who moves on to Zambia on Tuesday , has no
regrets.
"I've been immensely moved by it," he said. "I'm just deeply
glad that I came because seeing these immense congregations in the most
difficult situations, seeing what they achieve, it's just fantastic. It's
one of those 'I've seen the church and it works' moments.
"This
morning we spent the whole morning in the Manicaland diocese visiting a
number of congregations that have been excluded from their church buildings.
They gathered at the roadside to meet us, they gathered in extremely smelly
disused cinemas to meet us and in the middle of a field. They're there,
they're growing numerically. In terms of numbers there's no comparison
between the Kunonga faction and the church. It's been hugely moving and I'm
very glad I came."
Harare - The head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Rowan Williams,
on Monday said he had a 'very candid meeting' with President Robert Mugabe,
in which he told the African leader to ensure the safety of citizens who
worship in the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe.
'It was a very candid
meeting, disagreement was expressed clearly, but it was held in a peaceful
manner. We were able to share ... concerns ... (of) abuses our people have
suffered,' Williams told journalists after his meeting with Mugabe, which
lasted nearly two hours.
Williams arrived in Zimbabwe on Sunday to try to
heal divisions within the Anglican Church, which has been divided since 2007
when the former bishop of Harare and Mugabe supporter, Nolbert Kunonga, was
expelled by Williams amid divisions over the ordination of gay
priests.
Williams said issues related to homosexuality were discussed,
but that the 'Church of Central Africa ... does not encourage the ordination
of people in homosexual partnerships.'
He said it was worth visiting
Zimbabwe and meeting Mugabe. 'The local church needs a platform to make
absolutely sure that its grave concerns about injustice and violence are
given maximum possible publicity.'
On Sunday, in a sermon delivered to an
estimated 10,000 worshippers in Harare, Williams urged Zimbabweans to stand
up to violence and intimidation.
The president's spokesman, George
Charamba, was quoted by local media at the weekend as saying that Mugabe
would ask Williams to work towards lifting the so-called 'smart sanctions'
imposed on Mugabe and senior officials in 2002 in response to reports of
human rights abuses.
Williams said Mugabe did raise the issue of
sanctions, adding that 'what we are seeing is a number of targeted measures
agreed by the European Union. The question of dispute is how far those
sanctions are the cause of suffering or dysfunction in this country. I do
not have evidence to conclude that they are.'
Williams is to visit
Zambia on Tuesday before returning to Britain.
A trip to Zimbabwe by the head of the Anglican Church
worldwide has provided renegade Bishop Nolbert Kunonga with an international
platform to hide his seizure of church property behind the controversy of
gay priests in the church.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
arrived in Zimbabwe by road from Zambia on Sunday and addressed over 15 000
parishioners gathered at the City Sports Centre in Harare. But Kunonga, who
was excommunicated after an attempt to withdraw his Diocese from the main
church in August 2007, responded with a demonstration against
homosexuality.
In 2007 Kunonga unsuccessfully tried to withdrew his
diocese from the Church Province of Central Africa (CPCA) claiming it was
over differences on the ordination of gay priests. Without the necessary two
thirds majority support he still went ahead to unilaterally withdraw the
diocese and form his own church. With tacit support from the Mugabe regime
he also went on to seize Anglican property.
Since 2008 Kunonga has
seized over 90 properties belonging to the church, including the main
Cathedral in Harare, 19 primary and secondary schools and several orphanages
around the country. Although many international news agencies are reporting
this Anglican split as being based on a disagreement about homosexuality, SW
Radio Africa has reported over the past 5 years that this dispute in the
Anglican Church in Zimbabwe has nothing to do with this
issue.
Kunonga has in fact advanced his own agenda and now calls himself
an archbishop, in total control of all the church’s assets and funds. He has
openly declared his support for Robert Mugabe and given a farm as
reward. Kunonga has been able to rely on war vets, police, state security
agents and ZANU PF militias to build up his breakaway church while harassing
and intimidating legitimate parishioners. On Sunday Dr Williams dealt
with the crisis over the church property in his speech and spoke to
supporters saying: “It is not the buildings that makes the church but the
spiritual foundation of your faith.”
“Day by day you’re faced with an
enemy driven by self-enrichment and lies… We thank God for your patience.
You know very well, dear brothers and sisters, what it means to have doors
locked in your faces by those who claim the name of Christians and
Anglicans. You know how those, who by their greed and violence, have refused
the grace of God try to silence your worship and frustrate your witness in
the churches and schools and hospitals of this country,” Williams
added.
Meanwhile Kunonga convened a press conference at the Anglican
Cathedral at which he said: “Williams coming will not make the CPCA get in
the church buildings, look we are here in the Cathedral and they are meeting
at the Sports Centre. I am the owner of this (ndini muridzi wazvo). Gandiya
is showing off with a white man and I do not care. This is not the end of
Kunonga,” he boasted. SW Radio Africa spoke to Precious Shumba who works
as a Press Officer for Bishop Chad Gandiya, the man who effectively is the
legitimate head of the Church in the Harare Diocese, the position formerly
held by Kunonga. Shumba described Kunonga’s seizure of property as akin to
“an employee resigning from a company, then claiming that he should take
over the properties of that company.”
“What single church did Kunonga
build during his reign as Bishop? The majority of churches were built by
parishioners without any input from Kunonga and his thugs,” Shumba told SW
Radio Africa. He also confirmed that Robert Mugabe on Monday met with
Archbishop Williams to discuss the problems in the Anglican Church. A press
conference was set to be held to announce details of that meeting but at the
time of going on air no information had been received.
Three MDC-T supporters were on Friday admitted to a private
clinic in Harare after they were attacked in the capital by the violent
Mbare based Chipangano gang.
The weekly Zimbabwe Standard said in its
latest edition that ten other MDC-T supporters were injured in the attack.
About 50 members of the ZANU PF terror squad waylaid the MDC-T activists
along Simon Mazorodze road and robbed them of their cash and mobile
phones.
The paper said ten of the activists were treated and discharged
from the clinic but three, who could barely speak, were hospitalised. The
paper named two of the victims in hospital as Vengesai Chigoriro and Prince
Mwenezhi.
‘The three are being treated for injuries ranging from broken
ribs, brokens legs and a suspected fractured skull. They were stabbed with
screw drivers and struck by stones, iron bars and sticks,’ the paper
said.
The infamous Chipangano is a violent political gang which has
caused mayhem in Harare since the beginning of the year. It has unleashed
violence on unsuspecting victims, most of them people perceived to be
anti-ZANU PF. Recently, the MDC-T’s organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa,
dared Robert Mugabe to the stop the shadowy group from terrorising Harare
residents, to prove he is sincere in his calls for peace. Two weeks ago the
Bulawayo East MP for the MDC-T, Tabitha Khumalo, told party supporters in
the UK that the pattern of political violence being waged by Chipangano
seemed to be highly systematic, deliberate and well planned. ‘There are
four branches within Chipangano. There is Chipangano one, two, three and
four. Chipangano one identifies MDC activists. Chipangano two carries out
surveillance and monitors individuals and structures of the
MDC.
‘Chipangano three approaches our members and verbally warns them of
dire consequences of supporting the MDC. Chipangano four is the deadliest of
all the groups. This group beats the hell out of you,’ said Khumalo.
The MDC-T MP for Kuwadzana, Lucia Matibenga, was on Monday sworn in
as Minister of Public Service in the inclusive government by Robert Mugabe
in Harare.
The veteran trade unionist replaces the late Professor
Elphas Mukonoweshuro who died in August this year. Before her appointment
Matibenga had been the MDC-T governor designate for Masvingo
province.
She is a founder member of the MDC-T and a former General
Secretary of the Commercial Workers Union and a first vice president of the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. At one time she was also the president of
the Southern African Trade Union Coordination Council.
In 2005 thugs
from ZANU PF attacked her in her ZCTU office and broke her arm. The same arm
was broken again in 2006 during another attack by state security agents and
this has left her hand deformed. Party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora told SW
Radio Africa they are happy to have an individual of her calibre leading the
public service ministry.
‘We hope and have confidence in her that she is
going to deal with the issue of ghost workers and the horrible civil service
audit and accountability. The late professor did a splendid job in flushing
out these ghost workers and there is every hope Minister Matibenga will
finish that job,’ Mwonzora said.
Mugabe also swore in Seiso Moyo, the
MDC-T MP for Nketa in Bulawayo, as the deputy Minister of Agriculture. Moyo
is the party’s director of elections and like Matibenga was governor
designate for Bulawayo metropolitan province.
‘We now have a
substantive deputy Minister of Agriculture. This is a man who is sober,
mature and a good administrator. His skills will bring some sanity into that
ministry.
‘This is a ministry that has let down a lot of people in
Zimbabwe. The distribution of farming inputs is still skewed in favour of
one political party, so we hope he will bring professionalism into that
ministry,’ Mwonzora added.
At the formation of the unity government
in 2009 Mugabe refused to swear in the popular Roy Bennett, the
treasurer-general of the MDC-T, in the post of deputy Minister of
Agriculture. Mugabe’s refusal has remained an outstanding issue in the
Global Political Agreement.
Bennett remained the MDC’s choice for this
post until he was eventually hounded out of the country in April by Mugabe’s
Joint Operations Command. The former commercial farmer has been acquitted by
the Supreme Court of the trumped up treason charges against him, but still
feels it’s unsafe for him to return home. His party has since appointed him
the MDC-T chief representative in the UK.
Calls are intensifying for the lifting of targeted
‘shopping’ sanctions still in place against the Robert Mugabe regime,
despite ongoing human rights and governance concerns in the
country.
ZANU PF has been urging for the lifting of the restrictive
measures for years, and has used the ‘sanctions’ as the scapegoat for not
implementing the Global Political Agreement (GPA). The party says the
measures are to blame for the economic destruction of the country, despite
being specifically targeted against key members of the regime because of
human rights abuses and electoral theft, among other major
issues.
The US and the European Union (EU), who imposed the measures,
have both previously said that the ‘sanctions’ will remain until there is
evidence of real reform by ZANU PF. Reforms have not happened and human
rights concerns are still high despite the formation of the unity government
three years ago.
Regardless of these concerns, there is now a growing
call for the measures to be lifted which commentators have said is part of a
‘political game’.
Leaders in the Commonwealth are this month being urged
“re-engage” with Zimbabwe by the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau (Cab), which
said in a policy briefing that “reducing” sanctions would be a positive sign
of support. The University of London-based Cab is an independent think tank
and policy advisory service for the Commonwealth.
“There are plenty
of things the Commonwealth could do, if it so wished,” the Cab said, adding:
“It could, for instance, calibrate a reduction in international sanctions
against Zimbabwe to match progress towards democracy and human
rights.”
At the same time a United States Senator, Jim Inhofe, has
reintroduced the Zimbabwe Sanctions Repeal Act of 2011, in a bid to lift the
US sanctions imposed on the regime. According to a press release, Inhofe
said repealing the measures would allow Zimbabwe to recover financially and
“fully assist in its process of transition to democracy.”
“As a
result of a 2008 power-sharing agreement engineered by the Southern African
Development Community and the United States, Mugabe remains President, but
the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai holds the post of Prime Minister.
Under this new government, the Zimbabwe economy is starting to recover and
democratic freedoms are re-emerging,” Inhofe said.
Inhofe’s attempts to
have the measures repealed also come as the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Charles Ray, has encouraged more American investment in the country. Ray’s
comments at a business summit in the US last week are being viewed as a sign
that the US is trying to re-engage with Zimbabwe to secure its business
interests in the mineral-wealthy country. Ray’s comments that the US was
missing out to Russia and China have been singled out as telling of his
government’s changing attitude towards Zimbabwe.
“Let me assure you that
Zimbabwe is changing and it’s changing relatively quickly with investors
from as far as Russia, Brazil and China having visited Zimbabwe in recent
months to explore business opportunities and America’s presence remains
fairly limited,” said Ray.
Meanwhile the private business sector in
Zimbabwe has told the World Bank and the US State Department that the
sanctions should be removed as they have a “collateral damage” on their
businesses. Officials from the American Business Association of Zimbabwe
(Abaz) last week met influential American officials, and expressed concern
about their business interests.
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.”
Political analyst Clifford
Mashiri told SW Radio Africa that the lifting of the targeted sanctions
would be a serious “blunder,” explaining that “the reasons why these
measures were put in place have not been resolved.” He said these measures
are “the only real punishment facing the regime for human rights abuses, the
same abuses that have displaced millions of people.”
“Lifting these
measures would be a betrayal,” Mashiri said.
He also agreed that there is
a sense of “fatigue” over the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe, to the point that
business interests are over-taking human rights interests for Western
states. Mashiri warned that lifting the targeted sanctions would be the same
as sidelining human rights, because its gives ZANU PF absolute impunity for
the abuses they have committed and continue to commit.
Victoria Falls, October 10,
2011- Police here arrested Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan
Tsvangirai (MDC-T) district chairman, Bernard Nyamambi after arms of war
were discovered at his home in Chinotimba High density suburb here at the
weekend.
An AK47 rifle and a full bullet magazine were discovered at
Nyamambi’s home on Saturday. But when the MDC-T district chairman, who said
the arms were planted by his political rivals, took them to police, he was
arrested and questioned. He was released the following day Sunday and police
said they will pick him again.
Speaking to Radio VOP on Sunday
Nyamambi said he believed this was the work of Zanu (PF) and government spy
agency, Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) members.
“When I took
the arms to police they arrested and questioned me on why these arms were
found at my house but I told them openly this was the work of Zanu (PF) and
CIOs. Zanu (PF) wanted me to rot in jail because they believe I am the
stumbling block in their bid to win this constituency in next elections,”
said Nyamambi.
The police docket number Nyamambi’s case is RB
11815/67.
Victoria Falls which falls under Hwange West constituency has
been an MDC –T stronghold since year 2000 and Gift Mabhena is the current
legislator.
When contacted MDC-T Matebeleland North Provincial chairman
Sengezo Tshabangu also blamed Zanu (PF) over the arms which were found at
Nyamambi’s home.
“This is not different from Roy Bennett’s case, Zanu
(PF) is desperate they want to continue tarnishing our party’s image by
planting arms at homes of our members. I am happy that Nyamambi was quick to
rush to police after discovering the arms because police are now confused on
what to do with the case. They had arrested him for questioning but he was
released,” said Tshabangu.
There has been upsurge of in the number of
MDC activists harassed by police and Zanu (PF) supporters in the
Matebeleland North province in the past recent months. Police have also
banned MDC meetings in the province.
According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) Matabeleland North province is now a hostile
province as police have so far arrested or harass more than 40 politicians
and human rights activists January.
Meanwhile MDC-T youths have
threatened mass action over the arrest and incarceration of their Youth
Assembly President Solomon Madzore who is facing murder
charges.
Madzore was arrested on Tuesday on charges of killing a police
Inspector Petros Mutedza in May and is currently languishing in Remand
Prison after denied bail at Harare Magistrate court on
Friday.
However addressing over 2000 MDC youths at Induba grounds in
Pelandaba High density suburb on Sunday afternoon during the launch of
presidential elections campaign the party’s youth assembly Vice President,
Costa Machingauta threatened a mass action over Madzore’s
incarceration.
"Madzore is languishing in prison right now and police are
being used by Zanu (PF) to arrest and harass our leaders. We are not going
to sit back and watch the struggle continues and mass protests is the
solution, enough is enough ,”said Machinguta to a round of
applause.
Machingauta added: “(President) Mugabe is the main reason why
we are suffering and why we are in abject poverty, he should be removed in
the next elections.”
Speaking at the same rally MDC-T Youth Assembly
Spokesperson Clifford Hlatswayo said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as
Mugabe is now history.
“Mugabe is finished Tsvangirai will be walking
into the State House after next elections there is no doubt about that
comrades,” said Hlatswayo.
Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe who was
expected to lead the elections campaign launch did not attend as she was
said to be unwell.
The MDC Youth Assembly national leaders and several
party Members of Parliament, Senators attended the rally.
Although no
dates have been set, Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) party have said elections
should be held before March 2012, but civic groups want reforms to ensure a
level playing field before the polls.
Mugabe has said he will not invite
election observers from Britain and the European Union because they imposed
sanctions against his Zanu (PF).
Hurungwe, October 9 ,2011
- A dark cloud of uncertainty is hovering over some villagers’ heads here
amid allegations that they will lose out on inputs scheme yet to be
implemented by Government for communal farmers if they do not buy Zanu-PF
party cards despite calls by President Robert Mugabe that people must not be
coerced.
‘’We are under pressure to buy these cards and we have to be
within the party structures to benefit in future handouts. We are doing this
out of fear as those who do not subscribe to Zanu-PF are labeled opposition
members whether they like it or not’’ said a villager near the business
centre who refused to be named for fear of victimisation.
Another
traditional leader confirmed that they are now having their records adjusted
with information accompanied with Zanu-PF card membership .
‘’It is well
known here that John Chundu, a war veteran and former soldier in Operation
Maguta program openly says that those who do not have party cards will not
get anything. He is threatening that those who support any opposition party
will be evicted if discovered ’’ said a traditional leader who declined to
be named.
Last week President Mugabe told the central committee in
Harare, that his party wins elections due to its polices.
" We win
elections by nature of our policies. We do not win by way of fisting; we do
not convert people by the way of coercing. Let us work for a culture of non
violence ’’, President Mugabe said.
He urged his supporters to take the
message to the province and district level so that those at grass roots
level would welcome the move.
However as if acting in defiance of
President’s call, some suspected war veterans here are threatening villagers
in Hurungwe rural district ward 8 that cover Karuru area situated about 45
kilometres north of Karoi town.
Villagers here say they are being forced
to buy the cards and be part of the party structures to benefit in every
program that seeks to assist rural communities ahead of possible elections
set for next year.
The ward is under Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC-T) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai councillor, the late
Paddington Chavhuruma.
BULAWAYO - MDC youths say Zanu PF and the police are making
efforts to provoke them into a violent reaction following the arrest of
their leader, Solomon Madzore.
Madzore was arrested at his
Waterfalls home in Harare on Tuesday last week on murder charges relating to
the murder of a police officer, Inspector Petros Mutedza in
May.
Police once claimed he was on the run and was wanted to face murder
charges.
Following his arrest, Madzore appeared in court on Friday facing
murder charges and was remanded in custody to October 19.
Addressing
more than 2000 MDC supporters at Induba Stadium in Pelandaba high density
suburb in Bulawayo yesterday, Costa Machingauta, who deputises Madzore said
the MDC youths were planning to act following their leader’s
arrest.
He did not specify the type of action they would
take.
“It is very painful that our leader (Solomon) Madzore is
languishing in remand prison as we speak. Police are not doing this alone,
there are getting instructions from Zanu PF to arrest and harass MDC
leaders,” Machingauta said.
“As MDC Youth Assembly we will not just
sit and watch while this happens. It is high time we stop this, we have to
do something, enough is enough,” he added.
Machingauta urged the MDC
youths to confront war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda and stop his terror
campaign in rural Masvingo and Matabeleland provinces.
“Jabulani
Sibanda should be stopped,” he said, adding: “We can not allow him to
continue harassing and intimidating the rural folk. I am happy MDC youths in
Bulawayo did not allow his terror campaign here.”
Speaking at the same
rally, MDC Bulawayo Youth Assembly chairman Bhekithemba Nyathi said his
party would not allow the repeat of violence that characterised the 2008
general and presidential elections.
“We want peaceful elections this
time. We would like to warn Zanu PF against violence because we will
(indeed) retaliate,” said Nyathi.
The rally was attended by almost all
MDC Youth Assembly national leaders and several party Members of Parliament,
Senators from in and around Bulawayo.
Although no dates have been set,
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party have said elections should be
held before March 2012.
Civic groups and Sadc have demanded that there be
reforms that would ensure a level playing field before the
polls.
Mugabe has said he will not invite election observers from Britain
and the European Union because they imposed sanctions against his Zanu PF
party.
Deborah Bronnert, the new British ambassador to Zimbabwe, said
after meeting Mugabe recently that her government was happy that “the
(Zimbabwean) parties in the inclusive government were working together
towards greater reform and credible elections.”
HARARE, Oct 10, 2011 (IPS) - Zimbabwe’s justice minister is
frantically trying to fend off probes into allegations of human rights
abuses perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe’s regime since the country’s
independence in 1980.
Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, a member of the highest decision-making body of the ruling
ZANU-PF party, the Politburo, is reportedly trying to weaken the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) so that it would not be able to investigate
decades of governing party abuses.
The commission was established in
March 2010 but has been dormant due to the absence of an enabling act that
clearly spells out its scope of work. In late 2010, Chinamasa introduced a
bill that seeks to operationalise the commission, which is currently being
debated in the lower house. If approved, it will be submitted to the Senate,
but will require Mugabe to sign it into law.
The bill has attracted
criticism from human rights organisations and civil society locally and
internationally. Critics say it has many gaps that need to be addressed in
order to give birth to an effective human rights commission in this Southern
African nation.
These gaps relate to the functions of the commission,
whom it reports to, its powers to ensure that human rights abuse victims are
paid compensation or reparations, and the commission’s powers to prosecute
those found guilty of abuses. Failure to eliminate the gaps, civil society
says, could lead to Chinamasa abusing his ministerial powers by dictating
what the commission should and should not investigate.
ZHRC
chairperson Reginald Austin told IPS that his commission has concerns about
Chinamasa’s apparent attempt to control its activities.
"Our concern with
the current bill is that although we are defined as an independent
commission, there are provisions in the bill that severely compromise the
commission’s work and take away the idea of the commission’s independence,"
he said.
Austin explained that Chinamasa had included a clause in the
ZHRC bill that compels the commission to regularly brief him and also get
his approval on various issues, which include the financing of the ZHRC and
who it meets with.
"We are of the view that our funding and budgetary
updates as well as (the report on) our activities should not go to the
minister but to parliament since we were established by an act of
parliament," said Austin.
He said the commission also had issues with the
attempt by the minister to take away their transparency.
The
minister, as outlined in the current bill, can label sensitive information
as "secret" and withhold it from the public.
"What that provision does is
hold us back from disclosing certain details to the public despite the fact
that the public is entitled to that information. That on its own is
tantamount to unnecessary interference by the minister," Austin
added.
Chinamasa, in response, said parliament would make its decision on
the bill soon.
"The bill is before parliament. I do not see the
reason why people should make a noise now before the bill is (passed into
law)," he told IPS.
"There is no need to press panic buttons at this
moment," Chinamasa added.
However, he refused to discuss claims that he
was trying to be the commission’s "dictator".
"I will not comment on
such matters. I am the minister of justice and not a dictator. I simply lay
the provisions of the law and if they are passed by parliament, they will
become law. I do not dictate," Chinamasa said.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR), a group of practicing lawyers that seeks to protect the
rights of Zimbabweans from being violated by the government, noted that the
current state of the proposed law would result in an ineffective commission
that depends on the direction given by the justice minister in its
operations.
"It must be borne in mind that the current foundation of the
ZHRC … is weak and problematic and does not, in and of itself, facilitate
the creation of an independent institution," ZLHR said.
Human rights
organisations fear Chinamasa could prevent investigations into violations
perpetrated by ZANU-PF in the 1980s and push the commission to investigate
the post 2008 abuses. Violence erupted throughout the country in 2008 after
the disputed elections.
ZANU-PF have maintained that after 2008 Mugabe
was not alone in human rights abuses as Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) also violated ZANU-PF supporters’ human rights by
allegedly engaging in violence and murder.
An investigation into post
2008 abuses could also see non-governmental organisations (NGOs) being
dragged before the commission to answer ZANU-PF’s allegations that NGOs
distributed food to mostly MDC activists and denied food to their
supporters.
Asked to comment on whether there were other abuses the
commission was likely to probe outside the scope of the post 1980
violations, Austin said the outcome of the ZHRC bill would determine
this.
"The parliamentarians are the ones who can state what we will and
will not be able to do in terms of the commission looking at abuses, and
whether we will be empowered by the law to look at violations that belong to
the pre-independence and post-independence eras," Austin said.
South
African-based Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) coordinator Dhewa Mavhinga
said civil society organisations were deeply concerned that Chinamasa was
trying to curtail the commission’s work by "smuggling through the back door"
provisions that would effectively make it toothless.
"What the minister
is trying to do is to create a paper tiger," said Mavhinga.
"He is
trying to smuggle into the law provisions that give him total control of
what the commission can do and cannot do. We, as civil society organisations
working on the Zimbabwean crisis believe, firmly, that the minister should
not guide the commission in its work and should make the commission as
independent as possible," he added.
He said his organisation believed
that it is the commission’s mandate to probe human rights abuses perpetrated
in Zimbabwe by the Mugabe regime.
"These violations were committed and
there is no way they can be swept under the carpet without being addressed,"
Mavhinga added.
With tensions increasing within
Zanu (PF) every effort must be made to return Zimbabwe to its citizens by
harnessing popular support for, and participation in, reconstruction
policies and effort, Ollen Mwalubunju and Elizabeth Otitodun write OLLEN
MWALUBUNJU and ELIZABETH OTITODUN Published: 2011/10/10 07:43:00
AM
THE Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc’s) relative lack of
comment on disputes in Zimbabwe’s unity government between President Robert
Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has been
interpreted as an indication that Sadc’s strategy of "constructive
engagement" with the regime constitutes appeasement. It is a view bolstered
by Sadc’s previous lack of criticism of Mugabe following widespread
political repression and the economic crises in Zimbabwe since the end of
the 1990s.
However, the criticism fails to take account of recent
criticism by Sadc leaders of state intimidation and violence, and strong
calls for the timely completion of a Parliament-led constitutional reform
process in advance of elections scheduled for next year. Nor does such
scepticism lend sufficient credit to the body’s sustained support for
intra-Zimbabwean dialogue — currently facilitated by President Jacob Zuma .
Recent signs indicate that some positive outcomes are starting to emerge
from the peace process, which was initiated in September 2008, when former
president Thabo Mbeki brought together Mugabe and the leaders of the two MDC
formations, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, to sign the Global
Political Agreement (GPA).
The GPA identified the restoration of economic
stability as a key issue to be addressed by Zimbabwe’s power-sharing
government established in February 2009. In addition to the increasing
political repression, the country experienced an economic crisis between
2000 and 2008 that saw living standards and life expectancy fall more
rapidly than anywhere else in the world. Regionally, Southern African
economies are estimated to have lost more than $36bn in potential
investments in Zimbabwe as a result.
In response, the government launched
a short-term economic recovery plan in 2009, and has since formulated a
medium-term plan for 2010-15. Hyperinflation has been curbed and capacity
use in the manufacturing and service sectors has improved. But fundamental
problems persist, relating to constrained infrastructural capacity, foreign
currency reserves, investment and liquidity levels, skills shortages,
government finance, and corruption. Most Zimbabweans continue to rely on the
informal economy for survival. Even formally employed workers are often
unable to make ends meet.
In 2008, Zimbabwe’s health sector had almost
completely collapsed due to internal crises as well as deep cuts in social
spending imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
from the early 1990s. In recent years, maternal and infant mortality rates
have worsened and serious outbreaks of cholera, tuberculosis and malaria
have taken their toll.
Land reform caused huge instability in
Zimbabwe after a market-based approach failed to transform ownership
patterns. A hasty land redistribution programme in 2000, under which the
government expropriated 11-million hectares held by 4500 white commercial
farmers, led to international sanctions, the loss of jobs for most farm
workers and a decline in agricultural production.
Proper reform of
the security sector — and complementary reform of the political sector —
have become key challenges that need to be met to address the pervasive
engagement of the military, intelligence and policing agencies in Zimbabwean
politics.
The government of national unity (GNU) has said it needs $10bn
a year for its national reconstruction efforts. However, the government has
so far failed to attract significant funds from western donors and
China.
External aid and loans, which crumbled in the wake of sanctions
imposed by the IMF, the World Bank and other western donors in 2000, have
not been substantially revived, although the GNU has sought to provide a
framework to enable Zimbabwe to access such financing.
The challenges
facing Zimbabwe are huge and complex; and a clear demonstration of common
political will by the parties to the GPA will be needed on the road to
national recovery.
With tensions increasing within Zanu (PF) following
veteran leader and struggle hero Solomon Mujuru’s recent mysterious death,
every effort must be made to return Zimbabwe to its citizens by harnessing
popular support for, and participation in, reconstruction policies and
efforts.
• Mwalubunju is a senior manager and Otitodun a researcher at
the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town.
Zimbabwe
has defended its human rights record at a UN hearing while slamming
sanctions against the country which it said brought hardship and violated
human rights.
"Zimbabwe is a member of the international community
and remains committed to its obligations on human rights," Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa told the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic
Review.
He said Zimbabwe had reformed its constitution on several
occasions to improve the human rights situation.
"We adopted among
others laws on the protection of children and orphans, laws against family
violence and laws that ensure the rights of NGOs working in our country,"
said Chinamasa.
He therefore criticised the "illegal economic sanctions
against Zimbabwe, which contributes a lot to the suffering of the Zimbabwe
people and which are violations of human rights."
The European Union
has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe since 2002 due to repeated rights
violations by longserving President Robert Mugabe's regime.
The sanctions
include an arms embargo, as well as travel bans and assets freeze on a list
of Zimbabweans, including Mugabe himself.
Harare, Zimbabwe ---
MININGREVIEW.COM --- 10 October 2011 - Murowa Diamonds has agreed to
surrender a 51% stake in its mine in line with the Zimbabwean government's
indigenisation and economic empowerment regulations.
Zanu-PF secretary
for indigenisation and economic empowerment Saviour Kasukuwere, confirmed
that Murowa Diamonds had complied with the empowerment regulations last
week. “Murowa Diamonds wrote to us saying it has given up 51% shares and
these would be given to our people,” said Kasukuwere, who is also the
minister of youth, indigenisation and empowerment.
Kasukuwere added
that the implementation of the empowerment regulations had moved up a gear
with indications that President Mugabe would be launching the Ngezi
Community Share Ownership Trust, worth over US$100 million, next week at
Selous, in Mashonaland West province.
“On Thursday, the President will
launch our programme at Selous. A 10% stake worth over US$130 million will
now be in the hands of our communities. By December we will have more than
100 community trusts,” said Kasukuwere.
He added, however, that there was
still some resistance to the empowerment regulations.
“The general
trend of submitted plans shows a level of resistance in moving away from the
proposal by the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe. The mining businesses are
offering to dispose of 26 to 30% as equity on commercial value. The balance
is to be claimed as empowerment credits for corporate social responsibility
programmes. It appears this approach has been agreed to and coordinated
under the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe,” Kasukuwere said.
“My overall
assessment is that over 90% of the submitted proposals do not meet the
minimum requirements of the General Notice 114 of 2011, and there seems to
be an element of resistance,” he declared. “However, I am meeting the
various mining houses to achieve agreement on compliance with the law,” he
said.
DEPUTY Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara and Affirmative Action Group president Supa
Mandiwanzira will be guest speakers at a weekend business expo being held in
Leicester, United Kingdom.
Mutambara, the
driver of Zimbabwe’s “rebranding” project, “will give a presentation on why
every Zimbabwean should not forget home and explain why investing in Zimbabwe
now is the best way forward”, organisers said.
Now in its 10th
year, the ZimExpo Business Exhibition is being held under the theme:
“Cultivating wealth back home for a sustainable and bright
future.”
Mutambara and
Mandiwanzira will use the two-day event which begins with a business dinner on
Friday night followed by the exhibition and speeches on Saturday, to “address
key concerns of Zimbabweans in the diaspora”.
The expo will
climax with the staging of the Miss Zimbabwe UK pageant later in the evening
with performances by Jusa Dementor and DJ King Alfred.
Dozens of
companies “whose services benefit Zimbabweans home and away” are set to exhibit.
Companies from Zimbabwe and the UK are confirmed for the expo, said spokewoman
Chipo Mkandla.
The
ZimExpo Business Exhibition will be held at the Leicester Tigers Conference
Centre, Aylestone Road, Leicester, LE2 7TR from Friday through Sunday. For more
information CLICK HERE
Mana Pools, the iconic Zimbabwean national park and World Heritage
Site, faces another threat to its wilderness status as two new lodge
developments on prime sites within the parks boundaries have been proposed. And
both are being vigorously disputed by the wider conservation and ecotourism
communities.
It was just over a year ago that strong opposition from environmental
groups stopped Protea Hotels from going ahead with their 144-bed hotel and
conference centre across the river from Mana. But this time, the battle is
likely to be more complex as those involved are reputed to have strong political
connections.
Mana Pools has established its world-wide reputation because it
remains a low-volume wilderness region offering some of the best wildlife
experiences on the continent. And it lies along an extended floodplain section
of the Zambezi, which makes it an ecologically sensitive area. It is for these
reasons that UNESCO established the region as a Word Heritage Site.
Indiscriminate development by unconcerned developers puts this status at
risk.
Both proposed lodges seem to have been given government approval
without going to tender and without comprehensive EIA’s a being completed: in
fact, according to local conservationists, everything about the procedures goes
against the parks own approved management plans that state all new developments
should be well away from the river for ecological and impacts
reasons.
The first site, referred to as ‘Nyamepi Lodge’, is situated on the
banks of the Zambezi River midway between the parks western and eastern
boundaries, and is controlled by the son of George Pangeti, Chairman of Zimbabwe
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Board. The second site, known as the
Vine site, is also situated on Zambezi River between the existing Ndungu Camp
Site and Vundu Camp, and is controlled by an Italian citizen. He is involved in
a tannery business not far from Marondera that has extensive government
contracts. His partner, a Chinese national, has links to various businesses in
Zimbabwe, including minerals and the development of an agricultural university.
It is believed that this consortium won a concession to establish a lodge in
Gonarezhou National Park, which then subsequently fell through. In exchange,
they requested and have been granted a site in Mana
Pools!
LONDON — Former Cape Verde president Pedro Pires on
Monday won the $5 million Mo Ibrahim prize for exceptional African
leadership, as the award's founder forecast more Arab Spring-style
uprisings.
Pires, who led the island nation off Africa's northwest coast
for a decade until last month, is the first winner since 2008 of the world's
biggest individual prize -- because no suitable candidate could be found for
the past two years.
Cape Verde, which moved up two places to second
in the 2011 Ibrahim Index of African Governance announced Monday, has been
praised for its stable democracy and peaceful elections.
"The prize
committee has been greatly impressed by president Pedro Pires's vision in
transforming Cape Verde into a model of democracy, stability and increased
prosperity," committee chairman Salim Ahmed Salim, Tanzania's former prime
minister, told a press conference at London City Hall.
The Ibrahim Prize
for Achievement in African Leadership carries a five-million-dollar
(3.7-million-euro) prize paid over 10 years and $200,000 annually for life
from then on, with a further $200,000 per year available for 10 years for
good causes backed by the winner.
The inaugural prize went to former
president Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique in 2007 and Botswana's ex-president
Festus Mogae won in 2008.
The prize goes to a democratically-elected
African leader who has served their mandated term and left office in the
last three years.
The London-based Mo Ibrahim Foundation, set up by the
Sudanese telecoms tycoon, also publishes an Ibrahim Index, ranking 53
African countries according to 86 indicators grouped under safety and the
rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic
opportunity and human development.
Mauritius kept the top spot with a
score of 82 out of 100, ahead of Cape Verde (79), Botswana (76), Seychelles
(73) and South Africa (71).
Tunisia and Egypt, whose countries' leaders
were overthrown in the Arab Spring, were ranked ninth and 10th respectively.
Dropping one point, Libya slipped from 23rd to 28th.
Somalia remained
at the bottom with a score of eight, behind Chad (31), Zimbabwe (31),
Democratic Republic of Congo (32) and the Central African Republic
(33).
Sierra Leone (ranked 30th of 48) and Liberia (ranked 36th of 45)
showed the biggest improvement.
Citing the index data, Ibrahim said
imbalanced development, with reasonable health and education provision but
poor democratic participation, could lead to more uprisings.
"If
economic progress is not translated into better quality of life and respect
for citizens' rights, we will witness more Tahrir Squares in Africa," he
said, referring to the Cairo heartland of the Egyptian revolution.
In
Tunisia and Egypt, "there is great progress in human development -- a lot of
young people well-educated -- but terrible human rights, terrible democracy,
lack of participation and no jobs for young people."
Ibrahim said the
development imbalances exposed in the index pointed to the Arab Spring
spirit spreading south through Africa.
"It's not enough to develop the
economy and to deprive people from their citizens' rights," he told
AFP.
"We noticed last year a stagnation in the area of human rights and
the rule of law and this year we can see that definitely confirmed and there
are some reverses in some countries. So we really again raise alarm bells
here.
"That's not acceptable and so please be smart, African leaders:
Tahrir Square in your country -- that will happen, history shows you, where
you have that imbalance in development.
"If they are smart and stay
ahead of the curve, they reform."
He said Africa had resisted the
financial crisis well, with continuous improvement over the past five years
in "economic opportunity", while education and health care was also
improving.
Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who is on the
Ibrahim prize panel, said the Arab Spring had show that "no-one can say that
democracy and human rights are Western values."
"These people who
went to the streets proved they are universal," he told AFP.
The
archbishop has spoken out about his concerns for Anglicans under Mugabe's
regime, but ministers are more circumspect
Simon
Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Monday 10 October 2011 16.19
BST
Brave Rowan Williams did not pull any punches during his visit to
Zimbabwe this week, condemning the "greed and violence" of a renegade bishop
and by extension, the whole corrupt, perennially vicious Mugabe regime. It's
unfortunate British Foreign Office ministers are not similarly forthright in
their public statements. All the signs indicate Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu-PF gang are gearing up to steal another election. It's important they
be stopped.
The archbishop's concerns about an Anglican community in
Zimbabwe that is "tortured by uncertainty and risk of attack", has endured
"mindless and godless assaults", and whose property has been arbitrarily
expropriated might apply equally to MPs of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) prosecuted on trumped-up charges, harassed opposition activists
and human rights champions, and, indeed, anybody at all who dares to stand
up to Mugabe's 32-year-old, army-junta-backed autocracy. Williams was due to
meet Mugabe later on Monday.
Intimidation levels rose earlier this
year amid speculation that national elections due in 2013 may be brought
forward. As the Irish Times columnist Patrick Smyth noted: "Thirty of the
109 opposition MPs, several of them members of the notionally power-sharing
cabinet, have been arrested and jailed since their election in 2008. Human
rights observers [report] a systematic campaign by Mugabe supporters in the
police and prosecuting services … to intimidate the MDC."
Observers
fear a repeat of events preceding the last election when the MDC leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested and beaten, 200 of his supporters were
killed, opposition rallies were banned, and voters were terrorised by
pro-government youth militia. Tsvangirai subsequently became prime minister
in a power-sharing government, following the signing of the
externally-mediated "global political agreement" (GPA). The suggestion now
is that Mugabe plans to subvert the agreement's provisions for democratic
and security reforms and reassert his absolute overall
control.
"Elections in Zimbabwe are synonymous with violent beatings,
intimidation and vote-rigging. Rumours abound that Mugabe [aged 87] is very
ill with advanced prostate cancer and that he is keen to bring forward
elections … He wants to secure enough votes for Zanu-PF to rule without the
MDC, and without agreeing to a new constitution that was promised in the
2008 political agreement," said the analyst Roland Rudd, of RLM Finsbury, in
a recent commentary. South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, had a crucial
role to play in ensuring Mugabe did not renege on the GPA, he
added.
Far from heeding the sort of criticism dished out by Williams,
Mugabe is sticking to his outmoded ideological guns, buoyed by an economy
rescued from the brink by Tendai Biti, the MDC finance minister, and
underpinned by tried-and-tested roughhouse tactics. His latest wheeze: a law
forcing the transfer of foreign-owned firms to local ownership, a sort of
business equivalent of the forcible takeover of Zimbabwe's white-owned
farms.
Tsvangirai has warned the new law is economically damaging. "The
warped indigenisation policy has eroded investor confidence and created a
sceptical international business community that has developed a wait-and-see
attitude," he said. Others suggest Zanu-PF will use the new measure to
bankroll its election campaign.
Mugabe also appears bent on
maintaining his self-styled role as the enfant terrible of international
affairs. He has fiercely criticised the western intervention in Libya and
continues to insist that the National Transitional Council in Tripoli
negotiate a peace deal with Muammar Gaddafi, his old crony and a generous
aid donor. Speaking at the UN last month, he said African Union (AU) leaders
should resist western meddling. "It is a terrible period and it is selling
out of the principles of the founding fathers, and Zimbabwe cannot stand for
that," he said.
In fact, many modern-day African leaders appear to view
Mugabe as a throwback and an embarrassment. He certainly does not speak for
the AU on Libya, which has recognised the post-Gaddafi government. South
Africa's Zuma, the Zimbabwe regional mediator for the Southern African
Development Community (SADC), reportedly told Mugabe earlier this year to
stop his intimidation of Tsvangirai and abide by the GPA's terms. Zambia's
former president, Rupiah Banda, said Mugabe should study the Arab spring
uprisings since they showed what could happen when leaders did not listen to
their people.
Foreign Office ministers from William Hague downwards,
apparently keen to avoid a repeat of Peter Hain's bruising verbal jousts
with Mugabe, have been disappointingly circumspect so far about Zimbabwe's
looming descent into renewed political crisis.
Speaking in June, the
Africa minister Henry Bellingham referred glowingly to Zimbabwe's "massive
unlocked potential for trade". He continued: "It goes without saying that
the key to unlocking this potential is achieving the political stability
that can only follow free and fair elections. We fully support the efforts
of SADC, as guarantors of the GPA, as they work with the Zimbabwean
political parties to agree a path by which this will be
realised."
All worthy sentiments – but not exactly leading from the
front.
The
Archbishop of Canterbury today preached a sermon to a packed sports stadium
in Harare where over 15,000 Anglicans had gathered for a Eucharist,
travelling from all over the country - from as far as Bulawayo and Gweru
to Masvingo and Mutare.
The full text of the sermon can be found
below:
‘So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the
people they could find.’ ‘When it happens, everyone will say, He is our
God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us.’ Jesus’
parable of the great marriage feast is both one of the most joyful and one
of the most challenging of his stories; and it speaks very directly to us as
we gather here today. It begins with the picture of a great monarch who
wants nothing but to invite people freely to feast with him. He has made
all the preparations; there is enough for everyone to eat; he wants his
guests to be joyful and fulfilled – in body and spirit! And then the
responses begin to arrive. One after another, the guests he wishes to honour
find excuses for not accepting his generosity. They are too occupied with
their own private interests to come and share a great public celebration.
And so the king throws the doors open and invites anyone and everyone who
is willing to come – anyone who is hungry enough to walk through the
door, anyone who is eager enough for happiness and welcome to come and
enjoy it. All the king wants is that his gifts should be received and that
they should create joy. Our God is a God who wants us to receive what he
gives. He pours out his gifts in the world – the gifts of natural
resources, the gifts of human skill, the gifts of human love
and understanding – and he invites us to use them so that together we may
find joy, together we may grow to maturity, together we may be glad and
grateful for each other. His purpose is justice: not an abstract idea of
fairness, but a situation where every person has the fulfilment God
desires for them, without interference from others who want – in Jesus’ own
words – to shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against them. ‘You lock the door to
the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces, and you yourselves don’t go in,
nor do you allow those who are trying to enter!’ says Jesus to his
enemies in Mt 23.12. Because this is part of our problem. It is not only that
some refuse the invitation of God to share his abundant love and
generosity. It is all too easy for us human beings to try and block that
love and prevent it from reaching others. You know very well, dear brothers
and sisters, what it means to have doors locked in your faces by those who
claim the name of Christians and Anglicans. You know how those who by
their greed and violence have refused the grace of God try to silence
your worship and frustrate your witness in the churches and schools
and hospitals of this country. But you also know what Jesus’ parable teaches
us so powerfully – that the will of God to invite people to his feast is
so strong that it can triumph even over these mindless and Godless
assaults. Just as the Risen Jesus breaks through the locked doors of
fear and suspicion, so he continues to call you and empower you in spite of
all efforts to defeat you. And in the Revelation to John, the Lord
proclaims that he has set before us an open door that no-one can shut. It
is the door of his promise, the door of his mercy, the door into the feast
of his Kingdom. In your faith and endurance, you have kept your eyes on
that open door when the doors of your own churches have been shut against
you. You have discovered that it is not the buildings that make a true
church but the spiritual foundations on which your lives are built. And as
we together give thanks for the open door that God puts before us, we may
even find the strength to say to our enemies and persecutors, ‘The door
is open for you! Accept what God offers and turn away from the
death-dealing folly of violence.’ There is the message that the Church of God
exists to announce. God has poured out his gifts in abundance: why must
we human beings wreck and spoil these gifts by our sinfulness? God
has given us the promise and hope of his mercy in Jesus Christ: why is it so
hard to admit mistakes and sins? How strange it is that we so often
behave – yes, even we who are Christians – as though we cannot survive
unless we silence all voices of challenge or criticism. And God has given
so many gifts to this land. It has the capacity to feed all its people and
more. Its mineral wealth is great. But we have seen years in which the
land has not been used to feed people and lies idle; and we have begun to
see how this mineral wealth can become a curse – as it so often has been
in Africa, as people are killed and communities destroyed in the fight for
diamonds that will forever be marked with the blood of the innocent. A
few months ago I was in Congo and saw and heard some of the tragedies
that arose out of a war fuelled by greed for minerals. Can we hear the
voice of our Creator crying to us - like the blood of Abel ‘out of the
ground’ itself – ‘Why will you turn my gifts into an excuse for bloodshed?
Why will you not use what you have for the good of a community, not for
private gain or political advantage?’ Of course, to say this is at once to
recognize that it was just this natural wealth that provoked the greed of
colonists and imperialists in the past. No European can say these things
without being aware of what one of my predecessors, Michael Ramsey, once said
about ‘the debt we owe to Africa’ after generations of white rule. For a
long period in this country, an anxious ruling class clung on to the
power they had seized at the expense of the indigenous people and ignored
their rights and their hopes for dignity and political freedom. How tragic
that this should be replaced by another kind of lawlessness, where so many
live in daily fear of attack if they fail to comply with what the
powerful require of them. As we together give thanks for the gifts of
nature that God has given us and the gifts of solidarity and the gift of
freedom from foreign exploitation, can we stand together to say to all our
political leaders and rulers, ‘Listen! Not only to the voice of those who
suffer but to the voice of God himself, grieving over the way we ruin his
creation, the voice of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, longing for his people
to open their hearts to justice and peace and mercy.’ This Eucharist is
the sign of God’s purpose for all of us; it is a feast in which all are fed
with Christ’s new life, in which there is no distinction of race, tribe or
party. In this community there can be no place for violence or for
retaliation: we stand together, sinners in need of grace, proclaiming to
the world that there is room at God’s table for all people equally. What
the Church has to say to the society around it, whether here or in Britain,
is not to advance a political programme but to point to the fact of this
new creation, this fellowship of justice and joy, this universal feast.
It is on the basis of this vision that we urge all people to say no
to violence, especially as the next election approaches in this country; to
discover that deep reverence for each person that absolutely forbids us
from treating them as if their welfare did not matter, from abusing and
attacking them. The message we want to send from this Eucharistic celebration
is that we do not have to live like that – in terror, in bloodshed. God
has given us another way. He has opened a door of possibility that no-one
can shut. He has announced that he will welcome all to the marriage feast
of his Son – and so we see that all, even our bitterest enemies, still have
a place in his peace if they will only turn and be saved. Did you hear what
St Paul said in today’s epistle? ‘Fill your minds with those things that
are good and that deserve praise: things that are noble, right, pure,
lovely and honourable.’ We need to feed ourselves and most especially to
feed our young people with such things, to hold before us that great new
possibility opened up by God for our minds to be transformed, to be
excited not by the false thrills of violence and bloody conflict, by the
overheated language of party conflict, but by the hope of joy and
reconciliation. And this also lays upon us the duty to keep alive our own
concern for those lest able to help themselves. The Church of God is – or
should be – the great hope of the poor; not just as a source of material
help, important as that is, but as a source of hope and a guarantee of
human dignity. The Church could not exist with any integrity if it forgot
that every person is of immeasurable value in God’s eyes and so
immeasurably worthy of our attention and service. In this country in
recent years, you, our Anglican brothers and sisters, have been more and
more active and courageous in this practical service, and in reminding the
whole society of the universal dignity that the gospel implies. You have
also been faithful to those who suffer from the HIV pandemic, which has
ravaged a whole generation; and, like Christians elsewhere in Africa, you
have been at the forefront of challenging the stigma that can make the
suffering so much more bitter and can prevent people from facing the problem
honestly. You know that the truth will make you free. To tell the truth
about the sufferings and fears people endure, but also to tell the truth
about their value in the sight of God – this is the most effective way
of banishing stigma and prejudice and superstition. Dear friend in Christ,
you have given so much to the Church worldwide and to your neighbours in
this great and troubled country. Day by day, you have to face injustice and
the arrogance of ‘false brethren’ as St Paul would call them. You must often
have prayed with the Psalmist, ‘We have been treated with so much
contempt. We have been mocked too long by the rich and scorned by proud
oppressors’ (Ps 123.3-4). Yet you must know that we give thanks to God
for you – for your patience and generosity and endurance. Your life here is
tortured by uncertainty and the constant risk of attack, yet it speaks to
all of us in the worldwide Communion of the victory of Jesus Christ and
the undefeated will of God to welcome people into his Kingdom and to seat
them at the table of his Son so that we can celebrate the marriage of heaven
and earth in the fleshly life and death and resurrection of the Lord. ‘We
have put our trust in him and he has rescued us.’ Today we are able to
enjoy a foretaste of that rescue and that heavenly feast in the
Eucharist. And the free invitation of God to be reconciled and healed, to
leave behind the paths of violence and injustice, is once again spoken out as
we gather – spoken out to this country and to the whole world. What can
we say or pray except to cry out with Our Lord, ‘Whoever has ears, let
them hear!’ Notes to editors: Further information and photos will be
available during the course of the trip at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s
website: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org On
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lambethpalace On
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/archbishopofcanterbury
Bill Watch 41/2011 of 7th October 2011 [Minister of Justice to Propose Amendments to Human Rights Commission Bill]
BILL WATCH
41/2011
[7th October
2011]
Human Rights
Commission Bill
Constitutionality of
Bill and Amendments Proposed by
Minister
It is likely that the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Commission Bill will be re-introduced intothe House of Assembly
soon.If it is, it will be at the stage that it reached when the Third Session
of Parliament was closed.That is, it
will proceed to its Second Reading.It
had its First Reading on 12th July and then, like all Bills at this stage, it
was immediately referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC].The role of this committee is to examine
Bills to ensure they comply with the Constitution.The PLC considered some of the Bill’s
provisions were inconsistent with the Constitution and accordingly prepared an
adverse report on it.Before the report
was published, however, the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Mr Chinamasa,
met the committee and it was agreed he would propose the necessaryamendments to the Bill during the Committee Stage
[this comes after the Second Reading when the House goes through the Bill clause
by clause and when amendments can be proposed].The PLC then sent the Speaker a non-adverse report on the Bill, on
condition that those amendments were made. [The PLC’s
draft adverse report has not been made public.]
The
Minister’s Proposed Amendments
The Minister’s proposed amendments were printed in the
House of Assembly’s Votes and Proceedings for 31st August, the day after he
delivered his speech explaining the Bill to the House.[Electronic version of Notice
of Amendments available from veritas@mango.zw].Although the PLC report
is not public, some of the Minister’s amendments obviously respond to concerns
about unconstitutionality.Other
amendments do not address constitutional issues but seem to react to issues
raised in the report of the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs,
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs.The two groups of amendments will be outlined separately.Also there are still constitutional issues not
addressed by the Minister’s amendments, and these will also be listed.[Note: The
Minister is free to propose further amendments to the Bill, as are backbenchers
if they are not satisfied with the Minister’s amendments or think that other
clauses need to be changed.]
Amendments to Rectify Unconstitutional Clauses
1.Who may complainClause 9(4)(a) of the Bill states that
only a “citizen, resident or visitor of Zimbabwe” at the time at the time
of an alleged human rights violation may complain to the Commission.Clause 2 defines “visitor” in terms
which exclude such vulnerable persons as victims of trafficking, illegal
immigrants and refugees.This
restriction is inconsistent with the Constitution, which applies the Declaration
of Rights to all persons in Zimbabwe.
The Minister’s amendment would remedy this by removing
the limiting words “the aggrieved person was a citizen, resident or visitor of
Zimbabwe …”; in consequence he also proposes the deletion of clause 2’s
definition of “visitor”, which will be redundant if the amendment to clause 9 is
made.As a result any aggrieved
person will be able to complain to the Commission.
2.“Public interest”
restriction on evidence to CommissionClause 12(6) of the Bill allows the Minister to give notice to the
Commission and to a complainant prohibiting the disclosure by or to the
Commission [emphasis added] of evidence or documentation, if the Minister thinks
disclosure would be prejudicial to the defence, external relations, internal
security or economic interests of the State.This is inconsistent with the constitutional right to freedom of
expression.The Minister
proposes to replace this with a subclause which will
allow him to tell the Commission to hear such evidence in a closed hearing, and
the Commission will then be obliged to do so and to take steps to prevent the
disclosure of the evidence.An “aggrieved person”, e.g., the complainant,
would however be able to appeal to the courts.This apparently substantial concession by the Minister may turn out to be
limited by his related proposal to insert a new clause 12(9), which willapply the ordinary law regarding “privileged”
evidence; this means that evidence could still be withheld from the Commission
“in the public interest”, but not merely on the Minister’s say-so.Other proposed amendments to clause 9(7) are
of a minor nature, consequential to the adoption of the new subclause (6).
Amendments Not Addressing
Constitutional Issues
1.Extension of definition of “human rights
violation”The present definition in
clause 2 includes violations of treaties and conventions to which Zimbabwe is a
party and which have been incorporated into Zimbabwean law [“domesticated”], but
only if the domesticating law expressly gives the Commission power to deal with
violations.The amendment will remove
this requirement, so that the Commission will be able to investigate violations
even though the law which incorporates the treaty or convention does not
expressly give it power to do so.But,
the requirement that the treaty or convention must be domesticated will remain.
[Note: The Portfolio Committee report
said domestication is unnecessary, as long as Zimbabwe has become party to a
treaty or convention.]
2.Additional functions for ZHRCClause 4 presently purports to give the
Commission the same functions as it already has under the Constitution.The Minister proposes to replace it with a
new clause which will give the Commission additional functions, all expressly
permitted by section 100R(8) of the Constitution:
·to visit and inspect
prisons and mental hospitals;
·to “ensure and provide
appropriate redress for violations of human rights and for injustice”.[Note:
Section 100R(8)(d) of the Constitution says “secure and provide”, so “ensure”
must be a mistake.How the Commission
will “provide” redress is left unexplained.]
3.Qualifications of Executive
SecretaryA new clause 6(2) will
require that the Executive Secretary must be a legal practitioner of at least
seven years’ standing or have a graduate or post-graduate qualification in
human-rights law or a related discipline.
Other Clauses of Bill Still
Unconstitutional
Other clauses of the Bill,
not addressed by the Minister’s proposed amendments, are or may be
unconstitutional.
1.The Cut-Off Date of 13th February
2009Clause 9(4)(a) of the Bill
prohibits investigation of human rights violations that occurred before this
date.This is unconstitutional
because section
100R(5)(e) of the Constitution says that the Commission can investigate
any violation of the Declaration of Rights.Imposing a cut-off date is inconsistent with
the wide general words of the constitutional provision.
2.Stale ComplaintsClause 9(4)(a) also prohibits the Commission from investigating
complaints made more than three years after the violation occurred.This, too, is an unconstitutional
cutting-down of the general words of the Constitution.It also ignores the fact that victims of
human rights violations are often unable or too frightened to complain until
long afterwards.Zimbabweans have lived
for years in a culture of fear, and the Commission should break this.
3.A More General
ObjectionIt is at least arguable
that much of the rest of the Bill is unconstitutional.Section 100R(8) of the Constitution allows
Parliament to confer certain additional powers on the Commission, but it doesn’t
allow Parliament to do anything else.This is not the case with other Commissions.For example, the Constitution gives
Parliament the power to confer additional functions on the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, to regulate its members’ conditions of service, and to ensure its
impartiality; and section 109(2) of the Constitution gives Parliament similar
powers in relation to the Public Service Commission and other service
commissions.The absence of these extra
enabling provisions in section 100R suggests that, in relation to the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Commission, Parliament cannot prescribe the qualifications of
Commissioners, their terms of office, the procedure for removing them from
office, their conditions of service, how their meetings should be conducted, and
so on; nor can Parliament confer additional powers on the Commission apart from
what it is authorised to confer by section 100R(8).
Remaining Omissions and Weaknesses of the Bill
OmissionsSeveral important matters
are not dealt with in the Bill:
·Procedure for Selecting
Nominees for Commission MembershipThere is no provision for the procedure to be
followed by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee in arriving at its list of
nominees for appointment to the Commission, designed to give some assurance of
sectoral representation, impartiality and transparency.The Bill is completely silent on this matter,
which is regrettable because no other law regulates how the Committee must
exercise this sort of function.
·Interaction with
ParliamentThe Commission should be specifically authorised to communicate directly with Parliament, to
submit comments on all Bills, and to submit reports directly to Parliament
rather than through the Minister.
·Interaction with
International Human Rights BodiesThe Constitution tasks the Commission with
assisting the Government in the preparation of compliance reports to the bodies
monitoring compliance with international human rights instruments.The Commission should also be empowered to
submit its own reports to those bodies.
Weaknesses
·Inadequate Provision to
Buttress Commission’s IndependenceThere is no strong, direct statement that the
Commission is independent and not subject to direction or control by any
authority such as the President or the Minister;all the Bill says in clause 7 is that no
State official may interfere with, hinder or obstruct the Commission.This is not quite the same thing.It should be noted that section 109 of the
Constitution, which states that the Public Service Commission and other service
commissions are independent and not subject to anyone’s control, does not apply
to this commission.
·Inroads on Commission’s
IndependenceThe Bill in fact specifically reduces the
Commission’s independence in three respects.Clause 6 states that the Minister must be consulted before staff and
consultants are appointed;clause 17
prevents the Commission from accepting loans and donations without the
Minister’s approval;and clause 23 gives
the Minister a power to veto the Commission’s regulations.Also objectionable is clause 8, which allows
the Minister to demand reports and information from the
Commission.
·Lack of
BudgetWithout adequate funding, resources and staff the Commission will not
able to do its job effectively.This is
not something that that can be guaranteed by anything said in a Bill or Act, but
the Bill should at least require the Commission’s budget to be kept separate
from its parent Ministry’s, and enjoin Parliament to keep the Commission
properly funded [something the
Constitution fails to do].
·Mode of
InvestigationAn investigation procedure limited to a
formal inquiry is likely to be ineffective.The Commission and its staff should have power to enter and search
premises, in order to gather evidence and to see for themselves what is
happening there.For example, if it is
alleged that people have been tortured in a police station or barracks, the
Commission and its staff should be able to inspect the premises to see if the
allegations are true.
·Inadequate Provision for
Securing RedressThe Commission will be confined to reporting
on human rights violations and making recommendations about them;it will also be able to take proceedings in
court on behalf of victims.The
Commission will not have power to order anyone to stop a violation or to pay
compensation, which is what human rights commissions in other countries can
do.Its proposed power to “provide
appropriate redress” is likely to hampered by lack of funds.Its power to take legal action on behalf of
victims is unlikely to be of much use to them: court procedures are complex,
time-consuming and expensive, so any redress won through the courts may be long
delayed and will be expensive for the Commission.
·No
Power to Stop ViolationsThis is perhaps the Bill’s most significant
weakness.The lack of any provision for
the Commission to enforce its recommendations means that it cannot halt ongoing
violations and may be seen as lacking real “clout”.If its recommendations to a Minister, for
instance, are ignored, the Commission’s authority would be immediately
undermined.
·Bad
DraftingThe Bill is marred by several instances of
sloppy drafting, which could spark unnecessary disputes if not corrected.Is it really intended, for example, that a
complainant cannot assist the Commission in its investigations
[clause 7(4)] or that Commission members have a free hand to decide on salaries,
allowances, pension benefits [Second Schedule, paragraph 9]?
Given the country’s history,
the omissions and weaknesses in the Bill bode ill for the future of human rights
in Zimbabwe, unless MPs can find the determination and resolution to see that it
is improved during its passage through
Parliament
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied
Parliamentary Committees Series - 8th October 2011 [Meetings Open to Public 10 - 13 October]
BILL WATCH
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES SERIES
[8th October 2011]
Committee
Meetings Open to the Public: 10th to 13th October
The committee meetings listed below will be open to members of the public, but as
observers only, not as participants, i.e. members of the public can listen but
not speak.All meetings will be held at
Parliament in Harare, entrance on Kwame Nkrumah Avenue between 2nd and 3rd
Streets.
Note: This bulletin is based on the latest information released by
Parliament on 7th October.But, as there
are sometimes last-minute changes to the meetings schedule, persons wishing to
attend a meeting should avoid possible disappointment by checking with the
relevant committee clerk that the meeting is still on and still open to the
public. Parliament’s telephone numbers are Harare 700181 and
252936.If attending, please use the
Kwame Nkrumah Ave entrance to Parliament.IDs must be produced.
Monday 10th October at10
am
Portfolio Committee:Mines and Energy
Oral evidence from Minerals Marketing Corporation on its role in
exporting chrome
Senate Chamber
Chairperson: Hon Chindori-ChiningaClerk: Mr Manhivi
Portfolio Committee: Higher Education, Science and Technology
Oral evidence from University of Zimbabwe Vice-Chancellor on the
water situation and accommodation of students at UZ
Committee Room No. 3
Chairperson: Hon S. NcubeClerk: Mrs Mataruka-Mudavanhu
Monday 10th October at 2 pm
Thematic Committee: HIV/AIDS
Oral
briefing from Secretary for Health and Child Welfare on AIDS
policies
Government Caucus Room
Chairperson: Hon D. KhumaloClerk: Mrs Khumalo
Wednesday 12th October at 10 am
Portfolio Committee: Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement
Oral
evidence from Minister of Water Resources Development and Management on progress
of major dam projects and water supply schemes
Committee Room No. 4
Chairperson: Hon ChinamonaClerk: Mrs
Mataruka-Mudavanhu
Thursday 13th October at 9 am
Thematic Committee: Human Rights
Oral evidence from the Commissioner of Prisons on the current state
of prisons
Committee Room No. 2
Chairperson: Hon MaravaClerk: Ms Macheza
Thursday 13th October at 10 am
Thematic Committee: Indigenisation and Empowerment
Briefing by the Chamber of Mines on the implementation of the
indigenisation policy
Government Caucus Room
Chairperson: Hon MutsvangwaClerk:
Mr Ratsakatika
Veritas makes every effort to esure
reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information
supplied
