http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Tendai Maronga
Wednesday 07 October 2009
HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said Tuesday that new boards
announced last week to supervise
state-owned newspapers and oversee the
airwaves would have to be revised, in
what could mark the start of a fresh
tug of war with President Robert Mugabe
over senior appointments.
Information Minister Webster Shamu last week
named several boards -- packed
with former military men and allies of
Mugabe's ZANU PF party -- to
companies that run the government's vast
newspaper empire and the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Holdings, formerly known as
Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
that is the country's sole radio and
television broadcaster.
Shamu -- who insiders say would not have
announced the new boards without
express permission from Mugabe -- also
announced a new Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to oversee the
airwaves, despite a power-sharing
agreement that gave birth to Zimbabwe's
unity government requiring that the
authority is appointed after full
consultation between Mugabe his coalition
partners.
Tsvangirai told
journalists the appointments especially of the BAZ were
irregular and must
be revised.
"That issue is being revisited and appointments of board
members of BAZ is
the business of the President and the Prime Minister,"
said Tsvangirai, who
is locked up in another dispute with Mugabe over
appointments after the
latter unilaterally named two of his top allies to
head the central bank and
the Attorney General (AG)'s office.
Mugabe
has adamantly refused to reverse the appointments of Gideon Gono as
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe governor and Johannes Tomana as AG.
"The names are
submitted to us (Mugabe and Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur
Mutambara), we consider and we select. That has not been
done. Therefore it
is quiet irregular for the minister or anybody to
announce those names,"
added Tsvangirai, who spoke to journalists at Harare
International airport
on his way to Spain.
It was not clear from Tsvangirai's statement whether
Mugabe had in fact
agreed to scrap the new media boards that are dominated
by his allies and
supporters to allow for consultations with his coalition
partners as should
happen under their political agreement.
Mugabe's
spokesman George Charamba, who is also permanent secretary of the
Information Ministry and played a key role in making the controversial board
appointments, was not immediately available for comment on the
matter.
Meanwhile Tsvangirai said that he and his coalition partners had
agreed on
who should sit on the Zimbabwe Media Commission that will
spearhead media
reforms but said there was "one legal point that President
Mugabe wants
addressed" before the commission is announced.
He did
not elaborate on the legal point that Mugabe wants addressed.
Tsvangirai
also said Zimbabwe's principal leaders were scheduled to meet
next Monday to
discuss appointment of a new Independent Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission to
take charge of elections in the country.
The media and electoral
commissions are part of several commissions to be
formed by Zimbabwe's
power-sharing government as part of a raft of reforms
meant to re-shape and
democratise the country's politics that has been
characterised by violence
and gross human rights violations almost from
independence from Britain in
1980.
The other commissions provided for under Constitutional Amendment
Number 19
that established the power-sharing government are Zimbabwe
Anti-Corruption
Commission (ZACC) and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission
(ZHRC).
Once the commissions and a new constitution are in place the
government will
call fresh elections with the whole process that began in
February expected
to last between 18 to 24 months.
Rich Western
nations have refused to back the Harare government or lift visa
and
financial sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his inner circle seven years
ago,
saying they were not happy with the slow pace of the political
reforms. -
ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Cuthbert Nzou
Wednesday 07 October 2009
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's
decision to pack boards of state media
companies with trusted loyalists
ensures he has enough manpower to undercut
whatever reforms his unity
government with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
is looking to implement in
the media sector, analysts told ZimOnline on
Tuesday.
Mugabe, who has
previously imposed tough controls on the media, agreed to
media reforms
under last year's power-sharing agreement with Tsvangirai that
gave birth to
Zimbabwe's seven-month old coalition government.
The veteran leader is
soon expected to announce a new Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC) to spearhead
media reforms that are part of a raft of
political and legal changes meant
to re-shape and democratise the southern
African country's politics before
the holding of fresh elections by end of
2010 or early 2011.
But
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political scientist Eldred Masungure said
last
week's appointment of former military men and loyalists of Mugabe's
ZANU PF
party to boards of state newspapers and the Broadcasting Authority
of
Zimbabwe (BAZ) showed that the veteran President was "not yet ready to
embrace far-reaching media reforms".
"The appointments bring doubts
on the commitment of the ZANU PF half of the
government to genuine media
reforms," said Masunungure.
Tsvangirai's MDC party is challenging the
appointments that were announced
last week by Information Minister and ZANU
PF stalwart Webster Shamu and
which sources say were approved by
Mugabe.
The Prime Minister told reporters Tuesday that Shamu's decision
to appoint
the BAZ was irregular because the minister did not have powers to
appoint
the authority.
"That issue is being revisited and
appointments of board members of BAZ is
the business of the President and
the Prime Minister just like what we did
on the appointment of the Zimbabwe
media commissioners," Tsvangirai said.
It remains to be seen whether
Tsvangirai and his party will this time round
be able to force Mugabe to
backtrack on the crucial media appointments after
having so far failed to
force the 85-year old President to reverse his
appointment of allies to head
the central bank and the Attorney General's
office.
But analysts were
unanimous that if left unchanged the new media boards
announced by Shamu
would seriously undermine the ZMC's work and all effort
to turn
government-owned media into a truly public media.
They said this was
because the ZMC that should spearhead such reforms has
greater influence
only at national media policy level while Shamu's boards
will have effective
control on what gets to be printed in government-owned
newspapers that
dominate the newspaper industry in the country.
Previous boards manned by
ZANU PF loyalists have been accused of turning
government newspapers such as
The Herald and The Sunday Mail into propaganda
sheets for Mugabe's
party.
ZANU PF loyalists appointed to the new board of the ZBH will also
be able to
ensure the country's sole radio and television broadcaster
remains loyal to
Mugabe's party, according to analysts.
But even more
worrying is the move by Shamu to appoint former chairperson of
the
government's defunct Media and Information Commission (MIC), Tafataona
Mahoso, as head of the BAZ.
The BAZ is expected to spearhead the
opening up of airwaves by allowing
establishment of new broadcasters to
rival the ZBH.
Media groups and pro-democracy activists say Mahoso is the
wrong man for the
BAZ job after his role at the old MIC where he became
known as the "media
hangman" after ordering the closure of four independent
newspapers,
including the Daily News, that were critical of Mugabe and ZANU
PF.
Masunugure said: "The appointment of Mahoso is a clear sign that ZANU
PF
will not in the near future want to see genuine democratisation of the
media
space in this country."
Ernest Mudzengi, the national
coordinator of the National Constitutional
Assembly political pressure
group, questioned the motives of Shamu to
appoint at least one former senior
military officer to each of the boards of
government media
companies.
"What is the point of having so many military people?" said
Mudzengi, who
said the appointment of former brigadiers and other senior
ranking army
officer to the media boards was akin to militarising the
media.
Among former soldiers appointed by Shamu is retired Brigadier
Benjamin
Mabenge who will sit on the ZBH board. Mabenge is accused of
shooting and
killing an MDC activist two years ago. He has never been tried
for the
murder.
A Harare-based political analyst Michael Mhike said
Shamu's board
appointments were a clear strategy to ensure Mugabe and ZANU
PF retained
control of government newspapers while Mahoso at the BAZ would
block entry
of new broadcasters to keep the airwaves solely at the disposal
of Zimbabwe'
s long time ruler and his party.
"They want to continue
to control the state media and at the same time using
BAZ to block new entry
of broadcasters they perceive as enemies of Mugabe
and ZANU PF," Mhike
said.
Shamu was not immediately available to take questions on his
appointments.
Zimbabwe's unity government has done well to stabilise the
economy but it
has faired poorly on media and political reforms that have
moved at a snail's
pace, amid quarreling by coalition partners over the
extent and form of
reform.
Rich Western nations have refused to give
financial support to Harare or
lift sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his
inner circle seven years ago,
saying they were not happy with the slow pace
of media and political
reforms. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by
Partricia Mpofu Wednesday 07 October 2009
HARARE - Zimbabwe's
government has selected two foreign firms to mine
diamonds at the
controversial Chiadzwa diamond field, President Robert
Mugabe said
Tuesday.
Officially opening Zimbabwe's Parliament Mugabe said the foreign
investors
he did not name would help "bring progress to Chiadzwa" that is
also known
as Marange diamond field.
"The diamond industry has
continued to court the attention of inventors. So
far, two serious investors
have been selected. The engagement of the
investors will help bring progress
to Chiadzwa," said Mugabe, whose
government seized the Chiadzwa claims from
UK-based mining firm African
Consolidated Resources Plc (ACR) two years
ago.
Harare seized the Marange diamond field from ACR in October 2006 and
allocated the claim to the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation.
The Zimbabwean government has said it will appeal
against a Harare High
Court ruling two weeks ago that confirmed ACR's right
of title to claims on
the notorious Chiadzwa diamond field.
The
government moved into the controversial diamond field after thousands of
illegal miners descended on Marange, which ACR had held for some time but
apparently without any production.
A team from the Kimberley Process
Certification System (KPCS) - the world
diamond industry watchdog group --
that visited Zimbabwe last June called
for a temporary ban on trade in
diamonds from Chiadzwa after unearthing
gross human rights violations and
other illegal activities at the diamond
field allegedly committed by the
army.
Mugabe sent the army to Chiadzwa in 2008 to flush out illegal
miners and
dealers from the diamond field. But human rights groups have
accused
security forces of using brutal force to take control of the diamond
field
and later forcing villagers to illegally mine the diamonds for resale
on the
black market for precious minerals.
The army and police have
refused to leave Chiadzwa while Harare denies
allegations of human rights
abuses and says calls to ban diamonds from the
controversial diamond field
were unjustified because Zimbabwe was not
involved in a war or armed
conflict.
Meanwhile Mugabe also said that the government would pass a law
on the
mining sector soon to address concerns raised by an earlier draft
that would
have given locals control of mining operations owned by foreign
companies.
"The Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, which should be
finalised during
this session, will seek to strengthen the relationship
between government
and the mining houses," he said. - ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Chenai
Maramba Wednesday 07 October 2009
KAROI - A Karoi magistrate
will today hear a bail application by a prison
officer facing charges of
unlawful possession of ammunition and violating
the Wildlife Act after he
allegedly supplied bullets to a poacher in
Kazangarare, Hurungwe
district.
Tobias Chitswanda (27) was arrested last week and initially
appeared before
magistrate Elisha Singano last Friday who remanded him in
custody to Monday.
On Tuesday, another magistrate Archibold Dingane took
over the case and said
he will consider Chitswanda's bail application today
(Wednesday).
''Bail application will only be considered tomorrow as the
court needs to
weigh facts from both the defence and the State,'' ruled
Dingane.
It is the state's case that Chitswanda supplied live bullets to
a
Kazangarare-based poacher, Langton Madzviti, on September 8 this year with
the intention to unlawfully kill elephants for their tusks.
Madzviti,
who had his gun at his rural home, was arrested selling game meat
in Karoi
and implicated Chitswanda of supplying the bullets. Police
recovered one FN
bullet at Chitswanda's house in Chikangwe suburb in Karoi
during
investigations.
Defence lawyer Samuel Muyemeki asked the court to have
the charges altered,
saying his client is accused of supplying bullets but
not poaching.
''My client is accused of supplying bullets to the other
accused who could
have killed elephants or any other animals for the purpose
of poaching, but
the onus is for the court to prove it. It's my submission
that the charge be
altered for my client when the court considers bail and
prefer unlawful
possession of ammunition,'' said Muyemeki.
Prosecutor
Benjamin Negato argued that Chitswanda and Madzviti's cases were
inter-linked and altering one charge would weaken the case which the accused
are facing.
''Poaching is one case that the State is battling to
reduce and custodial
sentence is likely and if the accused are given bail,
they may abscond,''
said Negato.
Poaching has been rife in Zimbabwe
since landless villagers began invading -
with the government's tacit
approval - white-owned farms in 2000.
There have also been widespread
reports of illegal and uncontrolled trophy
hunting on former white-owned
conservancies now controlled by powerful
government and ruling ZANU PF party
politicians.
Several endangered animal species such as the black rhino
have been found
dead in sanctuaries in the past few years amid reports that
senior army and
police officials were behind the illegal hunting
activities.
Conservationists say hundreds of elephants have been forced
to migrate
across strife-torn Zimbabwe's borders, fleeing poachers and human
encroachment into wildlife areas. - ZimOnline
http://www.voanews.com
By Blessing Zulu
Harare
06 October
2009
The recent decision by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party to
readmit the former information minister Jonathan Moyo has
created divisions
within the former ruling party and could increase tensions
in the country's
unity government, sources say.
Although ZANU-PF
Deputy Spokesman Ephraim Masawi told reporters that the
decision by the
ZANU-PF politburo was unanimous, sources in the party say
its chairman, John
Nkomo, stayed away from the politburo meeting last
Wednesday when Moyo was
rehabilitated. He is said to have clashed with party
Information Secretary
Nathan Shamuyarira over Moyo.
Moyo was drummed out of the party in 2005
for allegedly plotting with a
dissident faction to oppose Mr. Mugabe's plans
to elevate party stalwart
Joyce Mujuru to the vice presidency. He was
formerly a close advisor to
President Mugabe on media strategies and is the
author of some of the
country's most draconian legislation hampering the
free press.
Moyo sued Nkomo for defamation early last year alleging that
he said Moyo
plotted a coup during a Tsholotsho district party meeting in
February 2005.
ZANU-PF sources said Moyo, considered to be aligned with
Defense Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa, is likely to further divide the party.
But others say
Moyo will be a valuable asset for ZANU-PF as it tries to
reposition itself
after broad electoral setbacks in 2008.
Reporter
Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe interviewed Moyo who
said he
rejoined ZANU-PF because he shares its ideological values.
http://news.scotsman.com
Published Date: 07
October 2009
By JANE FIELDS IN ZIMBABWE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has made
an impassioned plea at the opening of
parliament for deeply divided
Zimbabweans to build "bridges of amity,
forgiveness, trust and
togetherness", while glossing over mounting reports
of rights violations by
police and militias loyal to him.
With his wife Grace sitting on an
elaborate chair next to him and dressed in
a frothy white turban and royal
blue gown, Mr Mugabe, 85, said Zimbabwe was
ready to put old hostilities
aside.
"Let us be a Zimbabwe united in body, mind and spirit. Only that
way can we
really succeed," he said in comments far- removed from his usual
anti-
imperialist vitriol.
But prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the
former opposition leader who many
believe was the true winner in last year's
elections, sat stony-faced on the
benches below the couple, showing the
scepticism with which many in his
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will
view the president's words.
Yesterday's pomp-filled ceremony was the
first official opening of
parliament since the power-sharing government was
formed in February,
controversially allowing Mr Mugabe to extend his 28-year
rule.
Roads in the centre of Harare were cordoned off as he and his wife
arrived
outside the low, white, colonial-era parliament building in a
vintage black
open Rolls-Royce. Air force jets flew overhead, and judges
wearing white
wigs and red gowns trooped into the chamber to hear the
president's speech.
Pursuing his new toned-down approach, Mr Mugabe also
extended an olive
branch to western nations.
"Our country remains in
a positive stance to enter into fresh, friendly and
co-operative relations
with all those countries that have been hostile to us
in the past," he
said.
Relations between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai are tense: the former
has made
it clear he wants members of his Zanu-PF party who killed up to 200
MDC
supporters in election violence to escape prosecution.
Some are
even being rewarded: an army general accused of orchestrating
opposition
"purges" has just been appointed to the board of the state
broadcaster, a
move that "sends wrong and dangerous signals", the MDC
claims.
On the
other side of the coin, MDC MPs are being prosecuted for minor
offences. A
girlfriend of deputy youth minister Thamsanqa Mahlangu told a
court on
Monday that police had threatened to pour boiling liquid on her
genitals if
she refused to implicate him in the recent theft of a mobile
phone from a
prominent war veterans' leader.
Meanwhile, Zanu-PF militias deny food to
hungry villagers in the rural
Midlands province or force them to denounce
the MDC before giving them
handouts, rights groups say.
Nearly nine
months after being sworn in, the prime minister still hasn't
been able to
move into his official residence in Harare, apparently after
resistance from
Mr Mugabe.
MDC supporters are to decide later this month whether Mr
Tsvangirai should
stay in the power-sharing government.
http://www.zimtelegraph.com/?p=3500
By MIKE MAKOMO
Published: October 7,
2009
HARARE - The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany has
written to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that the grab of white
farmer Charles
Lock's farm by Brigadier Mujaji stops, The Zimbabwe Telegraph
has obtained
confidential correspondence.
The German embassy warned
that the grab of the property, Karori farm was
illegal as the property was
protected under government-to-government
investment treaties.
"The
Embassy wishes to express its dismay, and strongly protests against the
criminal behaviour of Brigadier Mujaji," said the letter, dated September
29. "It expects the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all authorities
concerned to take immediate action to restore law and order at Mr Lock's
premises, and to ensure full compliance with the Republic of Zimbabwe's
obligations under international law."
Mujaji is trying to seize the
property, which is protected a
German-Zimbabwean Bilateral Investment
Protection Agreement. As of late,
assets at the farm have been unlawfully
acquired by Brigadier Mujaji, a
senior member of the Zimbabwean armed
forces.
The Brigadier is currently occupying Karori Farm, property of
Lock, and
considerably indebted to the besieged German
investor.
Having been continuously harassed by the Brigadier and the men
under his
command for several months, Lock, on September 24, obtained a High
Court
order, not withstanding an appeal, to remove his crops and equipment
from
Karori farm. The value of his belongings exceeds US$1,5
million.
He arrived the morning after with the Messenger of Court and was
given three
police officers by the officer commanding disctrict, or Dispol
in police
parlance.
The court order specified that the police were to
ensure that the order was
enacted. Upon arriving at the farm the Messenger
attempted to serve the
papers on the soldiers under Brigadier Mujaji.
But
the furious soldiers warned that they had been instructed by Mujaji to
shoot
any one who attempted to take anything off the farm.
The two lorries Lock
had sent to his farm to collect his produce returned to
Harare with nothing.
Lock returned to the Dispol in Rusape, and the
Messenger requested more
police officers to enforce the order.
The Dispol told the Messenger to
take his order back to Harare as the police
would not support it. That
message was conveyed in Lock's presence to
Superintendant Mahla by Assistant
Commissioner Crime Khumalo at Police
General Headquarters, PGHQ. He had to
turn back without obtaining a result,
and the Messenger filed his return
papers citing gross contempt of court by
the soldiers and
police.
brigaier Mujaji has systematically stipped assets at the farm
despite the
High Court orders. On September 27, Brigadier Mujaji and his
soldiers stole
diesel from the farm. Using Lock's tractors, they then
evicted all the
senior staff from the farm and drove off all the workers who
were trying to
guard the maize and tobacco that Lock had harvested. The
workers were dumped
at Halfway House. Lock's cattle have been driven off the
farm.
"According to the latest information this Embassy has received, the
Brigadier has stolen over 300 tons of maize," said the letter to Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi, "and 150 tons of tobacco, and all the farm equipment inspite of
High Court Orders issued by Judge Patel. Mr Lock is not even allowed in his
home as the soldiers have threatened to shoot him."
The letter has
been copied to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, minister of
Finance Tendai
Biti, minister of Planning and Investment, minister for Lands
and minister
of State for Agriculture.
http://www.voanews.com
By
Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
06 October 2009
Some
parents and teachers have welcomed the government's extension of the
deadline for registering for school exams, but said extending loans to
students who can't afford to take the tests and limiting them to six
subjects falls short of a solution to the crisis.
The government last
week put off the deadline for exams registration to
October 16, and said it
would allow students and families to pay the cost of
exams over three
months.
The Zimbabwe Teachers Association said the government steps were
positive,
but added that people taking out the exam loans needed to fully
understand
them.
More than 70% of students nationwide did not
register for the November
examinations due to the cost, unions representing
teachers said. At US$10
per exam, full set of eight ordinary-level exams
would cost US$80, rising to
US$160 for the same number of advanced
exams.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe National Coordinator Oswald
Madziwa
told Studio 7 reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that the government has not
acted in
students' best interest.
http://news.sky.com
5:56am UK, Wednesday October 07,
2009
Emma Hurd, Africa correspondent
Zimbabwe's prime minister has
told Sky News he is frustrated by the slow
pace of change in his
country.
Eight months into his power-sharing deal with President Robert
Mugabe,
Morgan Tsvangirai said some members of the old regime are still
trying to
block progress.
"I think my party, the MDC, have fulfilled
our part of the bargain, it's the
others, Zanu PF, who are still reluctant
to go all the way," he said.
Speaking in his Harare office, under a
portrait of Mr Mugabe, he stopped
short of singling out his old rival for
blame.
"I would not have stayed with him if I thought he was there to
cheat and
undermine the progress we're making," he said.
But, unlike
the president, Mr Tsvangirai is not yet calling for immediate
lifting of
international sanctions against Zimbabwe, talking instead of "a
process of
dialogue".
It is a clear sign of the prime minister's
distrust of his partners in the
national unity government.
"One can
understand the fear of losing control, losing the monopoly of
power, and
sometimes I think that influences their decisions," Mr Tsvangirai
said.
Despite the slow pace, change is happening in
Zimbabwe.
The once-empty supermarket shelves are now stacked with
imported products.
Even bread, so long an unobtainable luxury, is widely
available again.
The rate of inflation has dropped from 500bn% to just 5%
since the
disastrous, worthless Zimbabwean dollar was
abandoned.
Instead of clutching piles of $100trn notes,
shoppers now pay in a
combination of US dollars and South African
rand.
The health and education systems in the country are also starting
to
function again.
Mr Tsvangirai is keen to show that the
power-sharing deal is working by
overseeing projects that will restore water
to communities that have been
cut off for years.
But his main focus
is on drawing up a new constitution that will ultimately
lead to the first
free elections, perhaps as early as 2011.
"I hope we can remove the fear,
the intimidation and the violence that have
characterised our elections for
the past ten years," he said.
Asked whether he was planning for a time
when he ruled Zimbabwe alone, he
smiled.
"Well, you don't form
political parties to join coalitions," he said.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, October 6, 2009 -
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on
Tuesday that the appointment of
former Media and Information Commission
chairperson Tafataona Mahoso's to
the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe
(BAZ) board is
irregular.
Media hangman Mohoso performed dismally in the
Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC) interviews held in July but was awarded last
week with the
post of BAZ board chairperson by the Minister of Media and
Information
Publicity Webster Shamhu.
"That issue is being
revisited and appointment of board members of BAZ
is the business of the
President and the Prime Minister just like what we
did on the appointment of
the Zimbabwe Media Commissioners. It starts off
with the SROC, the names are
submitted to us, we consider and we select.
That has not been done.
Therefore it is quiet irregular for the minister or
anybody to announce
those names," said Tsvangirai just before he left for
Spain where he is
scheduled to receive an International Bar Association
(IBA) award for the
respect of the rule of law and an award from the Cris
Gaberoun
Foundation.
Minister Shamhu last week unilaterally announced
board members to
public entities that directly fall under his ministry. He
said Mahoso will
now head the board of BAZ with Zimbabwe Open University
Vice Chancellor Dr
Primrose Kurasha as his deputy. He also announced the BAZ
board along with
appointments to various parastatals and other organisations
under his
ministry. All the boards he announced included retired military
men. These
include Brigadier-General Epmarcus Kanhanga (Zimpapers),
Brig-Gen Elasto
Madzingira (BAZ), Brig-Gen Benjamin Mabenge, Major-General
Gibson
Mashingaidze (both ZBH), Brig-Gen Livingstone Chineka (Transmedia)
Brig-Gen
Collin Moyo (Kingstons) and Col Claudius Makova (New
Ziana).
Tsvangirai however said the appointments by Shamhu were
meant to
undermine the authority and credibility of the ZMC and the BAZ
before they
are even constituted.
"What is very unfortunate is
that resurrecting people from the dead
does not inspire confidence in the
whole process. As principals we have
agreed on the names for the chairperson
and deputy of the Zimbabwe Media
Commission (ZMC). There is one legal point
that has to be addressed before
the names of the commissioners are made
public. That is what President
(Robert) Mugabe said he wants addressed,"
said Tsvangirai.
He said the appointment of the Zimpapers board
members was also
irregular as the company is a publicly quoted company on
the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE) and the appointment members should be done
through an Annual
General Meeting.
"What we are supposed to do as
government is appoint members to the
Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust, who are
supposed to go into the AGM and submit
who want to be on the board of
directors of Zimpapers, so again its very
irregular," he
said.
Tsvangirai, also acknowledged that there have been
challenges in the
inclusive government in terms of the full implementation
of the GPA but
maintained they, would be over come.
"What
we have done is that while we all appreciate that there has been
some
progress, there are some areas where we have not fulfilled the global
political agreement. So we have now put in place a mechanism to do an
interim evaluation of the GPA..." said Tsvangirai.
http://www.abc.net.au
By Africa correspondent Andrew Geoghegan for
AM
Posted 2 hours 11 minutes ago
Australia's sanctions on
Zimbabwe have been singled out as a main reason why
Zimbabweans are
continuing to suffer.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai maintains that
life is improving in his
country, even though President Robert Mugabe is
still in power.
But Mr Mugabe's party insists that Zimbabweans are
continuing to suffer
because of international sanctions.
Mr
Tsvangirai has been telling Zimbabweans that now he shares government
with
Mr Mugabe, life is changing for the better.
"Let those who stand in the
way of this progress know that we will not
suffer another 10 years," he
said.
"The situation for the average Zimbabwean is much better because
there's
food, they can afford basic goods.
"Let me say that if you
were to measure what has happened since February,
before the inclusive
government, there was fear pervading the whole society,
but now it is
gone."
But if you believe Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, Zimbabweans are
continuing to
suffer because of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change.
Didymus Mutasa, minister of state for presidential affairs, is
one of Mr
Mugabe's closest confidants. He blames Zimbabwe's plight on
international
sanctions.
"They have not accepted to call for the
removal of sanctions which they
originally asked for," he said.
"One
chief cause [of Zimbabwe's economic collapse] has been the sanctions
that
were imposed against us by your country, Australia, and I can't
understand
why."
Despite those sanctions only being targeted specifically at
individuals in
the government, Mr Mutasa says they are "illegal" and affect
all
Zimbabweans.
"They will not give us any more the aid that they
give us through
government, any aid that comes from Australia comes through
the NGOs that
support the MDC in order to achieve what they refer to as
change," he said.
Australia is one of many donor countries that are
reluctant to give the
Zimbabwean government any direct assistance until it
shows signs of real
reform.
But Mr Mutasa would have us believe that
it's all Australia's fault.
"The people of Australia are the people who
are making us flop, they are the
people who are causing all these ills that
they prefer to be happening in
Zimbabwe, and that annoys us," he said.
http://www.abc.net.au
By Africa correspondent Andrew
Geoghegan
Posted 7 hours 3 minutes ago
My sixth trip into
Zimbabwe was perhaps my most nerve-racking, and that's
despite being in the
country legally for the very first time.
At the border I openly declared
that I was a journalist. In the past such an
admission would have led to my
arrest and deportation. But, as the
immigration official behind the counter
sighed, this is the new Zimbabwe.
With no official media accreditation
process in place, my ticket into the
country was a letter from the office of
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. It
was an invitation for me to interview
him.
The young man at the immigration desk looked at the letter
sceptically and
after a discussion involving four officials he eventually
stamped my
passport and sent me on my way.
Driving into Harare I was
surprised at the vibrancy of the city.
Well-dressed businessmen were
striding purposefully down the street.
Most of the shops were open and
what's more, they seemed to be full of
customers with money to spend. Just a
few months after the formation of the
unity government, Zimbabwe appeared to
be undergoing a recovery.
My last visit to Harare was at the height of
the cholera epidemic. I was
keen to see if the root causes of the outbreak
had been tackled, and the
signs were promising.
In a scene that
people have not witnessed for years, workers were repairing
the city's water
pipes.
Once my cameraman and I had found a hotel to stay at we made our
way to the
ministry of information. (It seems to me if a government deems it
necessary
to have a department set up strictly for the dissemination of
information,
then it obviously wants control of what's being
said.)
I've dealt with information ministries across Africa and the
majority have
been obstructive, so my expectations weren't high. My contact
at the
ministry was a very pleasant man by the name of Dr Gurira, a Zanu-PF
official.
His response to my request for an interview with one of
President Robert
Mugabe's mates was predictable: "We'll see what we can
do."
Zimbabwe may have a power sharing government, but in reality there
are two
parallel governments. One is run by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the
other by Mr
Tsvangirai's MDC. Rather than working with each other, they seem
to be doing
their best to work against one another.
The nature of the
unity government means political enemies share the same
building. Mr
Tsvangirai sits directly above the information ministry
offices.
When
I sat down to interview him I cast my eye around the room, wondering if
the
people below had bugged the room. While the flowers in the vase looked
fake
they appeared to be bug-free.
Once I'd finished my interview, I walked
downstairs, where Dr Gurira
confirmed that he'd organised an interview with
Zanu-PF veteran, Didymus
Mutasa.
Wearing a shirt emblazoned with
images of Mr Mugabe, the honourable minister
shook my hand vigorously.
"Hello" he said, "you are Australian? You look
British."
Mildly
affronted I confirmed that I was an Aussie. "What do you imagine an
Australian to look like? Perhaps if I were Aboriginal?"
His eyes lit
up. "Ah, yes my friend, now that is Australian."
Mr Mutasa told me he'd
visited Australia in the 1980s, but he was no longer
welcome. Sanctions
imposed by the Australian Government on the Mugabe regime
meant that he was
refused entry. "Your Government's illegal sanctions!"
Mr Mutasa made it
clear that we were welcome to work in his country and the
ministry of
information had given us a letter to that effect. But that
didn't stop us
from being hassled by the notorious agents from the central
intelligence
organisation.
While filming at Harare's bus terminal two young men
dressed in shiny new
track suits pounced on us. They grabbed our camera gear
and marched us off
to see their superior.
We produced our ID and
handed them the letter from the information ministry,
our 'Get out of jail
free card'. An hour later they let us go. It wouldn't
be the only time we'd
be manhandled and questioned.
It will take more than promises of change
from Mr Tsvangirai for Zimbabwe's
culture of fear and suspicion to
disappear.
While the foreign media can go about its business with
relative freedom the
same can't be said for the majority of Zimbabweans.
But, at least their
country has stopped its slide into oblivion.
http://www.zimguardian.com/?p=1064
Written by PHIL MATIBE Oct 7,
2009
If an investor had a vibrant and profitable company, which of the
ministers
in the GNU would they entrust with their business and employ as
the CEO?
Recently Webster Shamu, Minister of Publicity and Information,
named former
senior military officers to the state media statutory boards,
sending an
unambiguous signal to the global community that the military, and
Robert
Mugabe, remain in charge.
The Army officers listed below, who
are now board members of media bodies in
Zimbabwe, constitute a well
orchestrated advance party for a pre-emptive
strike against democracy. Their
function is to soften the
target -elections - encircle and lay siege to all
media outlets, thus
denying any opposition broadcasting space. They shall
escalate the "pirate
stations" mantra into open warfare until a few days
before the next
elections.
Major-General Gibson Mashingaidze,
Brigadier-General Benjamin Mabenge,
Brigadier-General Epmarcus Kanhanga,
Brigadier-General Elasto Madzingira,
Brigadier General Felix Muchemwa,
Brigadier-General Livingstone Chineka,
Brigadier-General Collin Moyo and
Colonel Claudius Makova - this ethnically
skewed assemblage of military
officers reads like a command structure for a
genocidal
offensive.
The line between retirement and active service for Zimbabwe's
senior
military officers is blurred by political gibberish and veiled in a
smokescreen of secrecy, thus rendering the distinction between friend and
foe impractical.
Some of the officers unilaterally appointed by Shamu
have been fingered by
their victims as the perpetrators of the most heinous
crimes during last
year presidential elections.
Who is Webster Shamu?
He is a man who has never worked outside of ZANU (PF),
or government, since
Independence. He is a gravy-train passenger who has
survived and derived his
livelihood from parliamentary privilege. He has
spent the last decade
wallowing in oblivion as the editor of the ZANU (PF)
tabloid, the People's
Voice. He is the loyal errand boy for Mugabe and
performs his boss's tasks
with satanic enthusiasm. In return for cowardly
behaviour, he has been
rewarded with the post of Minister of Information and
Publicity.
Webster Shamu worked for the Rhodesian Broadcasting
Corporation, African
Service during the greater part of the liberation war.
He then joined ZANU
and became the ZANU (PF) liberation war disc jockey. He
broadcast propaganda
and other Marxist mantra from the Voice of Zimbabwe
radio station in the
comfort of Maputo, Mozambique, away from the war
front.
He set up a Maoist style re-education camp in Mashonaland West
Province as
the ZANU (PF) provincial chairman. Rape, torture, and murder all
became
synonymous with how those camps were operated by the notorious "Top
Six" who
were on speed dial with "Matemai" - Shamu's totem affectionately
used by his
followers.
Shamu, the pseudo-revolutionary, now displays
the very contempt for free
press as was once the norm with his erstwhile
master P.K. Van Der Byl of
Rhodesia. Shamu recently attacked independent
radio stations by saying they
are, "illegal, extraterritorial pirate
broadcasts which violate our
sovereignty in the name of media
freedoms."
Shamu forgets that it was radio stations like these during the
war of
liberation that gave the populace relief, hope, and alternative news
to the
draconian Law and Order Maintenance Act of Rhodesia. If Zimbabwean
broadcasting laws today allowed for independent radio stations, these
so-called pirate stations would die a natural death. It is important in 21st
century politics for a vibrant political party to have access to a website,
internet radio station, terrestrial radio station, television station and
other electronic media services. ZANU (PF) utilises and monopolises state
broadcasting facilities for the propagation of its own dogmatic
policies.
Shamu is part of the furniture in a burning house-ZANU (PF). He
is totally
unpredictable, a pathological liar, ruthless and irrational.
However, he
displays an affable public side that confuses the gullible povo
around
him-gentleman by day and efficient lord of war by night. He has
perfected
the art of murder, rape and political mayhem and proudly boasts of
being the
ZANU (PF) franchise holder for brutality.
By performing
game changing human culling tactics during the run-up to every
election,
from a distance on behalf of Gushungo, Shamu secured his permanent
place as
one of Africa's worst leaders in post-colonial history. Whereas
most human
beings are averse to inflicting misery and pain, Shamu is in his
element
when leading his devotees, who are always inebriated, supplied with
copious
amounts of cheap alcohol and smoking ZANU (PF) export grade mbanje
"weed".
"If they know those Natives have all those shortwave sets,
there is nothing
to prevent Moscow from giving them all types of information
that we do not
want the Native to hear about." - In 1952, the South
African Minister of
Posts and Telegraphs, Albert Hertzog, told Parliament
that the cheap radio
set being introduced by the British authorities in
their African colonies
was problematic.
It is 2009, and Webster Shamu
wishes to return Zimbabwe media to the dark
ages, keeping her citizens
unaware and uninformed and denying any freedom of
speech by asking
newspapers not to "betray" Zimbabwe, by Zimbabwe Shamu
means Mugabe. Mugabe
is not a "god", Mugabe is not Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is not
Mugabe, critising
him is every Zimbabwean's patriotic duty. Mugabe is a mere
"elected" public
servant, a mortal who like all humans is fallible and
susceptible to flaws.
When left unchecked through totalitarian media
censorship Mugabe morphed
into a tyrant. Freedom of speech is enshrined in
our constitution and no
one, absolutely no one, can take that away from us.
Curiously, I find
myself agreeing with the Minister's statement: "Thank God,
technology now
makes publishing placeless." I couldn't have said it more
completely.
"Tsuro nenungu mumwena mumwecheta abayiwa
ngaabude"
Chapter 47 - "The Man Who Tried to Kill Me", Madhinga Bucket
Boy by Philemon
Matibe - www.madhingabucket.com
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Iona
Viertheiler Wednesday 07 October 2009
OPINION: Supposing you
start at zero as a government but want to use all
your country's resources
for yourself here is how you should go about it:
The first step is to
look for unemployed young men who hang around beer
halls in their rags. Give
them a small payment, proper green uniforms and
batons. Also give them some
sense of self-importance by telling them that
they are held I high esteem by
your party because they are carrying out the
important duty of going around
the countryside as representatives of the
state and taking care that
obedience and silence prevails among the
peasants.
Then amend the
constitution in your favour.
Let your friends lead the security forces
regardless of qualifications
required for the position. More importantly,
tell them that they can help
themselves if their normal incomes seem to be
not enough for their likes.
Encourage them to produce new ideas in doing so
and assure them of immunity
from the law.
Amend the constitution in
your favour again.
Take over all parastatals. Suck out all incoming money
- be it fees,
payments for electricity bills or loan deductions for pension
funds. Never
reinvest. If goods commodities as grain, tobacco or gold, are
delivered to
your parastatals never pay for them.
Amend the
constitution another time in your favour.
Send your soldiers into
neighbouring states where any conflict is looming
and let the side your
soldiers are supposed to help pay you privately for
that service through
company shares and mining rights. Keep the soldiers'
salaries as low as
possible and do not care about them risking their lives
and
limbs.
Keep on amending the constitution in your favour.
Sell the
rights to exploiting your country's wealth such as fisheries,
minerals,
timber, et cetera to foreign states or foreign companies but make
them pay
privately to you for those rights.
Take all opportunities to amend the
constitution in your favour.
Look for the most viable companies in your
country and charge them with
trumped up illegal financial transactions. Then
put your friends as
commissars of the companies and run them yourself
through those friends. Or
just nationalise those companies to rectify
historical wrongs. If you and
your friends are not able to run the companies
properly just loot the assets
and sell. It does not matter that you destroy
99 percent of the value if
only you can rake in the 1 percent.
Check
constantly if the constitution needs some amendment in your favour.
Print
money as much as you want. This is advantageous in two respects: it
causes
hyperinflation but you will be the first to convert the weakened
currency
into strong foreign currency. Only after you have done your deals
will
inflation hit the other players on the market. Next time you print more
money it will work out the same. On the other hand, all your debts are
shrinking very fast, especially the pensions you are supposed to pay will
disappear like snow in the sun. Put a relative of yours at the helm of the
reserve bank and let him steal all foreign currency funds in the banks
especially the funds of the troublesome non-governmental organisations
(NGOs).
Again an amendment of the constituency may be
necessary.
Make sure that no middle class is coming up by crippling their
business
opportunities, by crippling education and healthcare, even food
supply. Of
course this cannot go on forever but certainly for a very long
period.
Exactly as long as all the assets you are looting hold
out.
Amend the constitution so that you can stay in government for your
lifetime.
When there are signs of opposition raising its ugly head,
search where the
nests of opposition are and wipe them out. Those breeding
points can be the
teachers unions, the farmer's labour power or even the
communities of big
cities. You ruin their businesses, you make them
destitute, you drive them
out of the country; you put them in jails in
droves or make them disappear.
The same applies to the press you perceive to
be oppositional.
Amend the constitution in your favour whenever you
please.
In the case of elections, you have to be careful. Your friends
are in charge
of overseeing the elections and of counting the votes - that
is not the
problem. They will be there to rig the votes in your favour. If
an election
supervisor gets very naughty they will even burn his corpse in
the bush. But
the electorate itself may be the problem. And eventually it
turns out now
how prudent it was in the beginning to train and brainwash
those young rural
men and give them uniforms and batons and something like
false dignity. You
just tell them now that nobody deserves to live who wants
to vote against
you. You give them drugs and a bit additional money and they
will run
berserk on your behalf. They will steel and rob, blackmail and set
fire on
huts and homes, drive the inhabitants into the forest, maim and
torture,
murder and rape for your good case even if the victims are their
own
neighbours and relatives. So even if you would have lost the elections,
it
needs only a bit of skilful dodging and you will still be the head of
state
and government, and commander-in-chief of the defence forces at the
end of
it all.
From time to time you will have to prevent that a new
constitution is
written as the present one is tailored to suit you almost
perfectly.
But all the time you will have to work hard and be very
inventive in order
to blame someone else for the mess you have
systematically and deliberately
produced. Nobody really understands why but
it seems that you feel obliged
to pretend that you are a good-willed morally
upright person who is just
prevented to do the right thing by others and bad
weather. You will have to
rant a lot of nonsense, inconsistent reasoning and
blatant lies and boast
that the country was yours. This will be the hardest
task but after all you
will dedicate your best talents to it because your
financial benefits are
above all imagination - almost too big for mediocre
figures like you. -
ZimOnline