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Military intimidating civilians: Tsvangirai

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Own Correspondent Thursday 23 September 2010

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday accused the military of
intimidating Zimbabweans during countrywide meetings to write a new
constitution and charged that the process was not credible, in his clearest
indication yet that his MDC party may reject the outcome on the new charter.

Officials have suspended constitutional hearings in Harare and the nearby
dormitory town of Chitungwiza after President Robert Mugabe's supporters,
some of them visibly drunk, trashed meetings by blocking rivals from airing
their views.

This has cast doubt on whether Zimbabwe has managed to exorcise the ghost of
political violence.

Tsvangirai blamed ZANU-PF for the outbreak in violence but would not say how
his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party would respond.

"This process fails to pass the test of legitimacy, credibility and
people-drivenness," Tsvangirai  said at a press conference.

"We have noted with concern the militarisation of the process, interfering
with a purely civilian process. Reports from all over the country show the
heavy involvement of the military in the process."

The military, whose commanders fought alongside Zimbabwe's President during
the 1970s independence war, has long pledged undying loyalty to the ageing
Mugabe and is now seen as the biggest threat to the future stability of the
once prosperous southern African nation.

Tsvangirai formed a unity government with Mugabe last year but the marriage
has been fragile and rocked by tensions and differences over political and
economic reforms.

Under the power-sharing pact, Zimbabweans will go to elections after a
referendum, which is expected next year but there are doubts the vote will
take place because the constitutional reform exercise is about a year behind
schedule.

Zimbabweans hope that a new charter will replace the ceasefire document
penned in 1979 on the eve of the country's independence from Britain.

But the countrywide public consultations on the constitution have
highlighted the continued tensions between ZANU-PF and the MDC, which
culminated in the weekend violence.

Tsvangirai said he would first meet Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, who heads a
splinter MDC faction, to try to address the violence. Mugabe is currently
attending a United General Assembly meeting in United States.

The MDC has since its formation in 1999 actively sought a new constitution
it says would guarantee free elections and entrench political and media
freedoms, while strengthening parliament's oversight role.

The new charter is also expected to introduce two 5-year presidential term
limits but ZANU-PF wants to do away with the position of prime minister,
which it says prevents the smooth flow of government operations.

In 2000, voters rejected a draft constitution in a national referendum that
catapulted Tsvangirai and the MDC as the most serious challenge to Mugabe's
vice-like hold on power. - ZimOnline.


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Murdered MDC activist Mandizvidza to be buried next week

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tichaona Sibanda
23 September 2010

The death of MDC activist Crispen Mandizvidza at the hands of ZANU PF youths
was a "calculated and ruthless murder of a strong-willed party cadre," an
MDC legislator said on Thursday.

Mandizvidza died on Wednesday as a result of the injuries he sustained,
after a savage attack by the ZANU PF youths on Sunday. The attack happened
shortly after a constitutional outreach meeting at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare
was abandoned, because of an outbreak of violence. Ten other MDC activists
were also admitted to hospital after they were attacked by ZANU PF members.
Mandizvidza was repeatedly hit with blunt objects on the abdomen and had to
undergo emergency surgery on Monday night. But, because of the severe nature
of the injuries, he didn't recover.

A medical report about Mandizvidza's death, seen by independent bodies
monitoring the constitutional outreach program, said he suffered "swelling"
and "deformity" and there was evidence of severe soft tissue injuries.
Mandizvidza will be buried next week in Zaka, Masvingo province.

Piniel Denga, the MDC MP for Mbare told SW Radio Africa "the attack (on
Mandizvidza) was planned." Denga said that the activist and the ZANU PF
youths were involved in a "fracas" during the constitutional outreach
meeting in Mbare on Sunday. When Mandizvidza headed home after the meeting
was abandoned "he was confronted by a large group of ZANU PF youths, some of
whom are known in the area," Denga said.

Denga said Mandizvidza was assaulted with iron bars, minimising his chances
of survival. One of the ZANU PF gang leaders was identified by his first
name, Jimmy, who is known to live at Carter House guest lodge.

"But the police won't make any arrests because they will be in deep trouble
if they incarcerate anyone known to be ZANU PF," Denga complained.

The MDC MP added: "A witness who was close to Mandizvidza has apparently
gone into hiding after police threatened him with arrest. He had gone to the
police to file a complaint and make a statement. Instead they are now
hounding the witness instead of going after the murderers."

 


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Student leader arrested over protest graffiti in Harare

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Lance Guma
23 September 2010

Tafadzwa Mugwadi, the president of a faction of the Zimbabwe National
Students Union (ZINASU), was on Thursday arrested by police over protest
graffiti painted around several city centre buildings in Harare. Speaking to
SW Radio Africa Kudakwashe Chakabva, a spokesman for the grouping, said
Mugwadi was detained by police around 9am and the union only knew about it
later in the afternoon.

"President Mugwadi was arrested early this morning after being summoned for
charges emanating from wall writings by an unknown group of students
expressing their anger on the vile 'education denying' tuition fees being
levied to them by the government," Chakabva told SW Radio Africa. He said
Mugwadi was being detained by members of the notorious Law and Order
Section.

At the TelOne building along the Julius Nyerere road, the slogan: 'Education
is not for sale' was painted. Opposite the NASA building along Sam Nujoma
Avenue 'ZINASU lives on' was written, and in the basement of the Parkade
Building opposite the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, 'Education is not for sale'
was written. Perhaps most daring was the 'ZINASU struggle is our birthright'
graffiti near Robert Mugabe's Munhumutapa office buildings.

"Thousands of students in the country's institutions of higher learning are
facing either deferment or completely dropping out of tertiary education due
to failure to pay the demanded tuition fees ranging from US$200 to
US$800.The paradox of this amount is that most students are sons and
daughters of civil servant who are earning a paltry salary of US$150,"
ZINASU said in a statement.

Chakabva said government claims of a lack of resources to fund the critical
education sector were not sincere because the same government "can afford to
spend thousands of taxpayer's money on a trip to a United Nations meeting by
at least sixty state officials all claiming allowances of US$250 per day."
This week the US Embassy in Harare confirmed granting visa's to 80 people
who were part of Mugabe's official delegation to the UN general assembly in
New York.
 


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Minister Mohadi implicated in theft of copper wire from ZESA

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tererai Karimakwenda
23 September, 2010

ZANU PF's co-Minister for Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi has been named in yet
another scandal, this time involving the theft of almost one thousand
kilometers of copper wire from the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority
(ZESA) and from the telephone company Telkom. A relative of Mohadi's,
believed to be a nephew named Roy Muleya, is reported to have been at the
centre of the wire theft ring.

SW Radio Africa this week received information that Muleya was arrested at
the Beitbridge border post last year with a convoy of ten trucks, each
loaded with tonnes of stolen copper wire. Reliable sources said the convoy
was headed for Troyeville, Johannesburg, where the wire was eventually sold.

Despite the evidence in the trucks and Muleya's failure to provide a clear
explanation, he was suddenly released by the police in Beitbridge,
apparently after interference by Mohadi. The trucks were allowed to cross
the border and it is believed that they travelled to their destination in
Troyeville.

The theft was so massive that the whole infrastructure of electricity and
phone lines south of Masvingo to Beitbridge was affected. According to
sources, low level employees at ZESA and Telkom were blamed for the thefts,
because it was believed that they were trying to compliment their meager
salaries. Specialised tools are also needed to release some of the copper
wire, adding to suspicions that 'insiders' were responsible, when all along
a top official was making huge profits.

SW Radio Africa Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme said that Mohadi
owns an insurance company in Beitbridge that insures foreign registered
haulage trucks for transit through Zimbabwe.

"What is happening is that the charges are extremely high and many of the
haulage companies are complaining that they are the highest in the region.
The costs do not match the risk involved," Saungweme said.

He also referred to a well known case that involved Mohadi's wife and her
suspected lover. He said: "It is public knowledge that his wife's lover was
found two years after he had gone missing somewhere in Beitbridge and there
was a lot of suspicion as to who killed him. There has never been any police
investigation."

As SW Radio Africa has reported over the years, Minister Mohadi is said to
have top connections within the Mugabe regime. Saungweme said the minister
is an asset to ZANU PF because he comes from an intelligence background and
has been involved in a number of mysterious cases.

He added: "There have been some farm invasions and a conservancy in Gwanda
which has been taken over by 'ZANU leaning thugs' and the mastermind has
been singled out as Mohadi."

At a time when the coalition government running Zimbabwe is trying to
convince businesses and farmers to help with the redevelopment of the
country, it would be beneficial if they started by stamping out corruption
and establishing a positive business environment. But unfortunately it is
top government officials who are at the heart of the problem.

 


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Gold panning behind latest farm invasions?

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Staff Reporter
Wednesday, 22 September 2010 18:49

HARARE - A new wave of farm invasions, particularly in Mashonaland West
province is mainly motivated by gold panning, one of the affected parties
has told Daily News.

Plumway Estates, a US$3,6 million consolidated farming project, says a
significant portion of its 2,3 hectare Chakari property is under threat from
a "new breed of land invaders" mainly interested in illegal bullion
extraction.

"These invaders are not interested in farming land, but gold panning,"
Ronald Chiwundura, the company's divisional director has said.

"Our view is that if they want to engage in mining, they must get claims and
licences from the authorities," he said, adding Plumway was perturbed by the
squatters' audacious move a fortnight ago against government policy barring
occupation of black-owned land.

Although Zimbabwe's unity government and the February 2009 dollarisation of
the economy has brought about relative stability, ordinary folks still find
an incentive in prohibited economic activities such as gold panning to
supplement their lives in the absence of tangible jobs and employment.

Besides, they would rather look or dig for the precious metal than engage in
actual farming - a widely suppressed, but known issue or phenomenon
reminscent of the days where some ''inventive'' farmers would sell diesel
and other inputs.

An export earning company with agro-activities ranging from grain,
horticultural and livestock production, Plumway is owned by London-based
Metallon Corporation chief executive and businessman Collen Gura.

While there have been attempts to seize the property in recent years, the
owners have a Lands ministry letter asserting their rights to the farm -
bought in November 1996.

"Plumway Properties is indigenously owned and held title to the properties
before the gazetting. Against that background, the government policy is not
to take land from indigenous people to resettle other indigenous people," an
M. Dzinoreva wrote on June 21 this year.

Observers say attempts to seize Gura's estate - along several other
black-owned farms - expose the shoddy nature of Zimbabwe's land reform
programme in terms of planning and implementation.

Ever since President Robert Mugabe's government embarked on the disastrous
programme 10 years ago, rampaging mobs of mainly Zanu PF supporters and some
war veterans have been indiscriminately overrunning farms, including
highly-productive and locally-owned portfolios.

Apart from commercial crops such as maize at 300 hectares, baby corn at
five, soya bean 250 hectares and tubers, including potatoes at 60 hectares,
the CAG Holdings agro subsidiary, Plumway, is involved a number of value -
addition activities, including foods and stock feeds production.

The company also had a shot at European market penetration through Nellco,
where it exported fruits and vegetables from the nearly 890 hectares of
arable land at its highly-mechanised Kadoma district farm, among other group
facilities.


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Russians Arrested, Face Deportation

http://news.radiovop.com

23/09/2010 17:04:00

Bulawayo, September 23, 2010 -Zimbabwe's immigration authorities are set to
deport five Russian tourists for illegally exploring minerals in West
Nicholson, Matabeleland South province.

The five Russians - Volynkin Vladilir, Safonor Alexander, Vorob Vev,
Valerity Kharitonov and Shokolov Ivor - were arrested last week at a new
mining site in West Nicholson.

For illegally exploring for minerals in that province, the five Russian
tourists were charged with abusing their tourist visas when they appeared
before Gwanda Magistrate, Douglas Zvenyika.

According to the state, the five entered the country on tourist visas issued
in Moscow through the Zimbabwean embassy but after entering the country
started engaging in mining activities.

They five Russians who were represented by lawyer Elasto Mugwadi in their
court appearance were charged with contravening the Immigration Act, Chapter
4:02 (engaging in activities not specified in the visa) and fined US$200 or
15 days in prison.

They face deportation. Matabeleland South is rich in gold deposits. Illegal
gold panning is however rife in that province.

President Robert Mugabe often says the country has rich mineral deposits
that he says are adequate to see southern African nation clear its external
debt on its road to economic recovery.

But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Zimbabwe's mining wealth
will not provide sufficient resources to settle the country's external debt
even if the government mortgaged its future fiscal revenues from the sector.

Zimbabwe's external debt is US$4,6 billion which is 104% of the country's
gross domestic product (GDP), a level which is considered unsustainable.

Diamonds, gold and platinum are some of Zimbabwe's minerals with a potential
to earn the country significant revenue streams, but they are also weighed
down by high extraction costs.
 


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Senator Sekai Holland threatens to quit

http://news.radiovop.com

23/09/2010 13:38:00

Harare, September 23, 2010 - The Minister of State in the Prime Minister's
Office, Senator Sekai Holland, says she will quit her post as a member of
the Organ of National Healing and Reconciliation if people think that she
has failed.

"I do want to do a job where people are seeing all faults and nothing
positive about what I am trying to do in this country," an angry Holland
told women at a workshop in Harare. "If you women think that I am not doing
my job then come and do it yoursleves because I am going to quit."

She had been provoked by a woman who told her that she was not visiting her
constituency of Chizhanje and was just using the Organ to attend conferences
and workshops in Zimbabwe.

"You chefs just eat and drink at major hotels and are doing nothing in the
rural areas," the woman told Holland.

"There is nothing being done by the Organ and we do not what it is
achieving. Where is John Nkomo. Where is Gibson Sibanda (now late),. We
never see them."

Holland then stood up and threw her hand bag on the high table and
threatened to quit.

She said she and the late Gibson Sibanda had done all they could do to make
the Organ work despite the fact that it was currently cash-strapped.

Meanwhile some members of the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisation Nango attending the same workshop castigated the organisation,
saying it is a toothless bulldog.

"What has NANGO done for us," a member questioned bosses at a workshop in
Harare. "Where do we stand as far as the constitution is and what is our
position."

NANGO held a meeting to see what they could inject in the upcoming National
Budget 2011 but debate changed to the constitutional making proces currently
suspended in Zimbabwe.

"What if Tendai Biti just throws out what we say here and are just wasting
our time," a member said.

"He does not take NANGO seriously just like all other government ministers.
They are just using us."

NANGO members said they were requesting a meeting with thei Minister of
Finance (Biti) to ensure that their voices were heard.
 


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Tsvangirai Calls For Urgent Meeting With Mugabe

http://news.radiovop.com

23/09/2010 10:16:00

Harare, September 22, 2010 - The Movement for Demoratic Change leader, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has called for an urgent meeting with principals
who signed the Global Politial Agreeement following the death of an activist
from his party after weekend violent clashes with Zanu (PF) over meetings to
draft a new constitution.

"One of our members who was attacked by Zanu (PF) over the weekend has since
passed away. His name was Chrispen Mandizvidza," MDC spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa said at a press conference on Wednesday.

At the same press conference, Tsvangirai said:"This process (constitution
making) fails to pass the test of legitimacy, credibility and people
drivenness. We have noted with concern the militarisation of the process,
interfering with a purely civilian process. Reports from all over the
country show the heavy involvement of the military in the process."

"In the rural areas, ordinary people were under siege from similar cases of
military meddling. The military and state agents' involvement must be
investigated and the principals must meet immediately to map the way
forward."

"So messy was the process that it rendered the hearings unnecessary and out
of step with the slightest meaning of what could possibly be regarded as a
people driven Constitution making process."

Tsvangirai said the violence over the weekend was needless and was a stark
reminder of "our dark past and a serious threat to our common future."

Zimbabwe is meant to write a new constitution which will lead to new
elections but the current disturbances are likely to derail the process.

The main principals of the unity government Tsvangirai, President Robert
Mugabe and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara have failed to resolve
outstanding issues in the unity government that include appointment of
senior government officials.
 


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Over 60 Zimbabwe kids die of measles after resisting immunization

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/

Sep 23, 2010, 12:51 GMT

Harare - Nearly 70 children in Zimbabwe died of measles in a two-week period
recently after communities of religious sects drove away government health
teams trying to immunize their children, the health ministry said Thursday.

The 'Vapostori', or 'apostles', combine Christian fundamentalism and African
traditional practices, forbid the use of Western medicine and insist on
treating the ill with 'holy water' and prayer. The government has tried for
years to persuade the sect leaders to allow children to be immunized against
measles and other diseases, with little success.

In May, health authorities mounted a massive countrywide immunization
campaign after a surge in the viral disease had killed 400, mostly among the
sects, ministry disease control director Portia Manangazira was quoted as
saying in the daily state-run Herald newspaper.

She said they noted 'a significant decline' in the incidence of measles.
'There are, however, areas that have continued to report cases of measles
because the communities have continued to evade health authorities. The
persistent refusal 'means these closed communities have large numbers of
unvaccinated children,' she said.

She said two religious communities, one in south-west Zimbabwe and another
in the Mazowe district 40 kilometres north of Harare had 'chased away the
campaign teams.'

She said she knew of 24 children who died in Mazowe during the fortnight,
and 40 in a district further north. Medical teams had been dispatched to try
to contain the outbreaks.


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Jenni Williams released without charge; 10 released members need medical attention

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by The Zimbabwean
Thursday, 23 September 2010 07:35

After much confusion, Jenni Williams has been released from police
custody.Inspector Majuru, based at Harare Magistrate's Court, finally
released her after Williams signed a caution under protest.

Majuru had insisted that Williams be taken to Harare Central for 'addressing
a gathering in court'even though both she and her legal representation
explained on numerous occasions that she had merely been speaking to members
that had been released from court about who needed medical attention. The
group was also not even in the immediate vicinity of court. Inspector Majuru
would not let her go to Harare Central however as he kept insisting that it
was not safe to do so as there were still WOZA members outside court and
they would start demonstrating if they caught sight of Williams! After
several phone calls between himself and Harare Central, Williams was
released.

The 76 women and seven men released this morning after two nights in
horrific conditions in Harare Central are all suffering from aches and pains
and upset stomachs. 10 people required medical treatment for various
ailments including dysentery. Lazarus Mandondo required treatment for severe
headaches as he was beaten across his head with baton sticks and made to
stand on his head for several hours. Several people are still in the process
of being checked and the whole group will be monitored for developing
conditions.

It also transpires that a nine-month-old baby was in custody with her
mother. It is being investigated why the mother and child were not released
earlier. Both mother and baby are still due to be checked by a medical
professional.

The group testified to appalling conditions in cells. Clara Manjengwa and
Lillian Ntefula, both of whom spent six days in custody in April, confirm
that conditions are much worse now than in April. None of the cells, male or
female, are in use due to their filthy state requiring all detainees to stay
in the passages, which are equally dirty. Over 120 women and over 150 men
were squashed in their respective passages.

The toilets were not working and in the female cells, no water was
available. When the WOZA women asked for cleaning materials so that they
could clean their section, they were given a mop but no water. In the male
cells, an officer, Moyo, would spray the male prisoners with a hose pipe and
make them sing and dance along to a song played on his cell phone. If anyone
did not comply, they would be beaten. The WOZA and MOZA activists were also
verbally abused by officers. Yesterday, after refusing to pay admission of
guilt fines, they were forced to eat their dinner and breakfast this morning
in a room filled with human waste 'to fix them for thinking that they have
money'.

WOZA condemns the prolonged detention of the 83 activists, including a baby,
in inhumane conditions, their degrading treatment, the torture of Lazarus
Mandondo and the arbitrary arrest of Jenni Williams. The demonstrations
earlier this week were to highlight police abuses and the concerns of
ordinary Zimbabwean citizens about safety in their communities. The
behaviour of police towards the women and men of WOZA, human rights
defenders exercising their constitutional right to speak out about issues
concerning them, only serves as further proof of our concerns. Attempts on
the part of WOZA leadership last week to meet with the Commissioner of
Police, Augustine Chihuri to discuss the concerns of WOZA members about
community safety and to hand over a list of demands were denied by his
refusal to meet with WOZA.

WOZA renews its call to members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police to behave in
accordance with the ZRP Service Charter, Service Standards and the Police
Act. Please remember the people of Zimbabwe are not the enemy to be abused
and mistreated, we are your brothers and sisters.


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Zimbabwe airline pilots end 2-week strike, criticize NY trip by Mugabe and 80-member entourage

http://www.foxnews.com/

Published September 23, 2010

| Associated Press

HARARE, Zimbabwe -  HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's national airline says
a crippling two-week strike by its 44 pilots has ended and regional and
international flights will resume Friday.

Air Zimbabwe chairman Jonathan Kadzura didn't give details of the deal that
ended the strike. The airline fired the pilots last week but then resumed
negotiations.

Senior pilots earned $2,600 a month, well below salaries of their regional
counterparts, and the heavily indebted airline failed to pay most crew
allowances for the past 20 months.

One airline plane was commandeered to fly President Robert Mugabe to the
U.N. General Assembly in New York this week. U.S. officials confirmed they
issued 80 visas for his entourage. Striking pilots had criticized the trip
for its extravagance in the ailing economy.


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Chihuri orders police to register as voters

http://www.dailynews.co.zw/

By Energy Bara
Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:16

MASVINGO - Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri has ordered all
policemen in the country to register as voters ahead of elections due in
2011.

Chihuri gave the directive in a circular on 9 September 2010 to officers
commanding provinces in a move seen as another attempt to rig the elections.
In the 2008 presidential run-off elections, police were forced to vote for
Mugabe in the presence of their superiors.

In the circular which was shown to the Daily News, Chihuri expressed concern
over the failure by some officers to cast their votes in the 2008 elections.

Chihuri said he will soon dispatch senior officers countrywide to ensure
that all officers register as voters.

"Addresses' are reminded that voter registration is a continuous exercise,"
read part of the circular. "Commanders are reminded that police officers
under their command are educated and ordered to register as voters."

"It was discovered that during the last election, some police officers who
had asked for postal ballots did not vote because they were not on the
voters' roll."

"This office will send commanders to check if this instruction has been
obeyed and make sure that those not registered as voters do so without
fail."

Although Chihuri could not be reached for comment yesterday, a senior police
officer in Masvingo yesterday confirmed the developments.

"It is true that all officers have been ordered to register as voters by the
commissioner general and that is what we are going to do," said the officer
who refused to be name.

"Although voting should be voluntary, if an instruction comes from your
superior it has to be obeyed," added the officer.

Zimbabwean laws do not force citizens to register as voters.

However political analysts have said that the order by Chihuri could lead to
rigging of elections.

"The responsibility to register voters lies with ZEC," said a political
analyst.

"For a uniformed senior officer to force people to register is an anomaly
and this could lead to rigging of elections."

Zimbabweans are expected to go to the polls next year where Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe are expected to resume their
rivalry.
 


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Zimbabwe plans out-of-court settlement of dispute with German bank

http://www.thezimbabwemail.com

23 September, 2010 02:51:00    APA

Harare - Zimbabwe is considering an out-of-court settlement with German bank
KfW Bankengruppe which is owed €40 million borrowed more than 12 years ago
to rehabilitate the troubled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Ziscosteel),
APA learns here Thursday

Sources said the KfW Bankengruppe settlement would be announced on October 8
when the case comes up at the North Gauteng High Court in South Africa.

"The Zimbabwean government has decided to go for a settlement with the
German bank KFW Gruppe and offered to repay the 40 million Euros,"
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Vice President Louis Fick said.

A South African farmer dispossessed of his property under President Robert
Mugabe’s land reform programme, Fick is leading a campaign to sue the
Zimbabwean government over the expropriation of farms.

The North Gauteng High Court in July postponed the auction of several
properties in South Africa owned by the Zimbabwean government which had been
seized to pay back loans from the German bank as well as compensate a group
of South African farmers who lost their farms under the land reform
programme.

The postponement came after the Zimbabwean government appealed against the
legality of the sale.

Seven properties in South Africa’s Western Cape and Gauteng provinces were
seized by KfW Bankengruppe in May over Harare’s failure to settle a
multi-million dollar loan.

The government, through Ziscosteel, entered into the loan agreement with the
German bank in January 1998.

Repayment of the loan was then meant to be done in 16 instalments starting
from May 2000. But after only four payments, the last being in 2002,
Ziscosteel stopped paying, leaving the German bank with no other option than
seek other means of repayment.


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Zuma to face pressure over Zimbabwe

http://www.europeanvoice.com/

By Toby Vogel
23.09.2010 / 05:11 CET

South African leader will be urged to help deal with difficult neighbour.

European Union leaders will next week call on Jacob Zuma, the president of
South Africa, to become more involved in the search for a solution to
political deadlock in Zimbabwe.

Zuma will on Tuesday (28 September) travel to Brussels for a summit with
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, and José Manuel
Barroso, the president of the European Commission. The summit is only the
third to take place between the two sides and comes two months before an
EU-Africa summit in Libya.

The EU expects Zuma to ask the Union to lift the remaining sanctions on
Zimbabwe, according to an EU briefing document, but many member states are
sceptical that such a move would help resolve a stalemate between Robert
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's long-time strongman, and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai. South Africa has in the past resisted calls to step up pressure
on Mugabe to open up his country, ravaged by repression and misrule.
Regional agreements

Another likely point of disagreement concerns trade, with South Africa
opposing the regional Economic Partnership Agreements that the EU has
signed, or is negotiating, with many countries in the region. The South
African government believes that the agreements could undermine regional
integration in the continent's south by splitting the area in two. EU
documents describe South Africa as maintaining a "committed and assertive
developing-country perspective" on various issues.


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Judges take bribes

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by Rebecca Moyo
Wednesday, 22 September 2010 13:20
Anti-corruption commission investigates

HARARE - High Court Judges, magistrates, prosecutors, lawyers and clerks of
court are among those receiving bribes and compromising the country's
justice delivery system.
Anti-Corruption Commission investigations manager, Sukai Tongogara,
confirmed to The Zimbabwean this week that the commission had received
complaints against some individuals at all levels of the judicial system.
"Magistrates, prosecutors, clerks of court, legal practitioners, officers of
the Labour Court, traditional chiefs and judges are all involved and cases
of bribery involving these offices continue to rise," said Tongogara, who
declined to reveal any names.
"What is worrying is that some of the graft involves judges presiding over
cases involving relatives and friends without disclosing their interests,"
she said. When asked the extent of corruption and bribery at the High Court,
Tongogara said judges' cases contributed 1% of bribery and corruption
matters reported to the commission. It is universally accepted that a
judiciary that is fearless, impartial and independent is fundamental to any
democratic dispensation.
"Of all cases reported to us, the highest number involved bribery and
corruption against magistrates, prosecutors and clerks of court," Tongogara
added. She said judges represented the lowest number of corruption cases
being handled by her organisation, but some lawyers said it was worrying
that senior officers such as judges could be involved in any form of graft.
Tongogara cited interference in the independence of the judiciary as the
biggest area of corruption. "Poor remuneration, lack of supervision, weak
monitoring mechanisms, inadequate work facilities, greed, lack of integrity
and unprofessionalism also contribute to this scourge," she said.
Some lawyers were said to be fraudulently selling properties, conniving with
prosecutors to solicit money to obtain judgments and with clerks to remove
documents from records, she said. Over the past decade, the justice delivery
system in Zimbabwe has taken a major knock as is proved by the blatant bias
and partiality displayed by judicial officers; particularly in cases
involving issues of human rights and other politically-sensitive cases.
Analysts say the case involving Jestina Mukoko and other MDC activists has
clearly proved that some judges would fare better as Zanu (PF) political
activists rather than judges. They said it was also alarming to hear that
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had "donated trinkets to judges of the High
Court" and that many were recipients of farms stolen from commercial farmers
under the so-called land "reform" programme.
These "trinkets" included luxury SUV motor vehicles, generators, plasma and
LCD television sets. "By accepting these lands and "gifts", the judges have
compromised their credibility and impartiality beyond redemption," said one
analyst.


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ANALYSIS: Weekend clashes signal blood polls

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Edward Jones Thursday 23 September 2010

HARARE - Political violence that rocked outreach meetings for a new
constitution in the capital has heightened fears that this could serve as a
forerunner of what to expect in general elections that the country's main
political parties want to be held next year, but which analysts warn could
end in another stalemate.

Violence broke out when President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF supporters
disrupted outreach gatherings in Harare last weekend, forcing officials to
cancel meetings.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party and ZANU-PF are clamouring for elections in 2011 to end their uneasy
coalition that was formed after a hotly disputed poll three years ago.

But the weekend's events, where suspected ZANU-PF supporters, some of them
visibly drunk, trashed meetings by blocking rivals from airing their views
on a new charter, have cast doubt on whether Zimbabwe has managed to
exorcise the ghost of political violence.

"What we saw during the weekend is a clear indication that Zimbabwe can not
hold a violent free election because the mood is still very much like it was
in 2008," John Makumbe, a veteran political commentator and Mugabe critic
said.

"The perpetrators of violence in 2008 are still very much on the loose and
they will go back the same route because their sponsors are still in power
and are afraid to lose power," said Makumbe.

ZANU-PF supporters in Harare's poor townships and the nearby dormitory town
of Chitungwiza brought events to a standstill when they threatened
participants with guns and machetes while some were involved in fighting
with their MDC rivals.

Polls Only Alternative

Although Zimbabwe has been blighted by political violence since independence
in 1980, tensions eased somewhat in 1987 when Mugabe's party and the late
Joshua Nkomo's PF-ZAPU merged to form ZANU-PF.

But political disturbances exploded again in 2000 as Mugabe fought to stop
the surging tide of the MDC which had been formed a year earlier and has
come closest to unseating him from power.

Political commentators said a fresh poll is the only alternative to dissolve
the unity government, whose life has been tenuous and marked by bitter
tensions over political and economic policies.

"Elections are the only way out of the current political stalemate but do I
think they should be held in 2011? Well it would not be prudent to hold them
unless there is a serious transformation of the body politic," said Eldred
Masunungure, who heads the local political think-tank Mass Public Opinion.

"If elections are held under the current conditions, there is no doubt that
the biggest beneficiaries will be ZANU-PF."

The southern African nation was gripped by violence in the run up to the
June 2008 presidential run-off as Mugabe sought to claw back from his first
ever defeat by Tsvangirai during the first round of polling.

No Security Reform

The army and central intelligence took control of Mugabe's campaign and with
the support of war veterans and a rowdy youth militia, unleashed violence
that left more than 200 MDC supporters dead and embarrassed even some of
Africa's most neutral leaders.

Analysts say the failure to reorganise the security sector, which has
pledged undying loyalty to the 86-year-old Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader
and in office since independence in 1980, did not augur well for future
elections.

Tsvangirai told an economic conference on Zimbabwe in South Africa last week
that he was aware of the anxiety of the securocrats and that talks were on
to reassure them on their future.

But political commentators said there was no evidence of key reforms within
the security ranks, adding that the security forces stood in the way of a
smooth transfer of power in future.

"The security sector has not been reformed and the fears and interests of
the security has not been addressed by the inclusive government and so in
the next election they will act in the same manner that they have in the
past," said Makumbe.

A referendum is expected next year on a new constitution, whose writing is
nearly a year behind schedule but there are now lingering doubts that the
final document will carry the wishes of the majority.

Zimbabweans hope that a new charter will introduce two five-year
presidential terms, clip the powers of the president, strengthen the
oversight role of parliament and allow the legislature to approve
appointments of service chiefs and senior civil servants. - ZimOnline.


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Transition to Democracy Proves Difficult for Zimbabwe

http://www.voanews.com/

Peta Thornycroft | Johannesburg 22 September 2010

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he and his colleagues in the
unity government must continue to rebuild the country, despite difficulties
and slow progress towards democracy.  Mr. Tsvangirai and other Zimbabwean
leaders were in Johannesburg for a recent investment conference.

The primary goal of Zimbabwe's transitional unity government is to stabilize
the country and create a suitable environment for free and fair elections.

No one is sure when the elections will take place and some analysts fear
elections without reconciliation will spark a return to the political
violence in which about 200 of Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters were killed
during the last polls in March 2008.

Glacial pace

But, some ministers in Prime Minister Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change say Zimbabwe is slowly moving forward from the chaos and violence of
the past 10 years.

One of the major difficulties faced by Zimbabweans is an erratic power
supply resulting in lengthy power cuts.  This has severely constrained the
possibility of rebuilding mining, industry and agriculture.

The Movement for Democratic Change energy minister in the unity government,
Elton Mangoma is upbeat about new investment in electricity.  He says
Zimbabwe will be self sufficient in power in three years through repairs and
increased output from existing power stations and investment in new ones.

"We have already lined up investors, it is all sorted out," Mangoma said.
"And then two greenfield investments, in coal, one at Sengwa and that is a
2,400 megawatt project, with a European country coming in."

Mangoma, like Mr. Tsvangirai, was arrested and beaten in detention under the
previous ZANU-PF government.  Mangoma says it is more important to try to
rebuild Zimbabwe than to dwell on President Robert Mugabe and the past.

"Do you fight Mugabe every day or do you focus on achieving your objective?
You have to commit yourself," Mangoma said. "We say we think we can work
this thing through, and surely we have better insight.  It is not out of
stupidity.  You do not achieve the growth rates we are getting if you are
stupid ."

Exodus

During the political crisis of the past 10 years, ZANU-PF closed several
newspapers, many journalists were arrested and some fled the country.  One
of those affected was Trevor Ncube, a Zimbabwean publisher who moved to
South Africa several years ago.

Under the unity government he is now regularly back in Zimbabwe and recently
launched a new daily newspaper, Newsday.

Ncube says one of the most pressing problems facing Zimbabwe is the lack of
skills because so many people have left the country due to the political
crisis.

"There simply is not the depth of skill in Zimbabwe," Ncube said. "The
banking sector, the insurance industry and so forth is suffering.  As a
result quality of products, quality of service is lower than it has ever
been in Zimbabwe."

He says many who left the country are nervous to return in case the
inclusive government fails.

"A lot of people do not have confidence that what has been started is
sustainable, that there will not be developments around the corner that are
going to reverse the situation so that they are back to square one, having
to deal with same issues that caused them to leave the country," Ncube said.

Black vs white

Although political violence has declined under the inclusive government and
there are fewer partisan arrests, the situation for white commercial farmers
and their workers has worsened.

Official statistics show that 90 percent of white commercial farmers, whose
products provided 40 percent of Zimbabwe's foreign currency, have been
evicted since 2000.

Pressure group Justice for Agriculture's John Worsley-Worswick said former
commercial farm workers, now employed by new farmers who were given
white-owned land, are among the poorest people in Zimbabwe.

"Those that remained internally displaced on commercial farms, who were
forced to work for new farmers, were forced into a cashless existence where
the work they were doing was paid for in kind," Worsley-Worswick said. "They
were getting a couple of slices of bread, and tea a day, and at the end of
the month if they worked a whole month, they would get a bucket of maize."

He said farm workers without cash cannot pay for health care or education
for their children or buy subsidized food that is available on the former
commercial farms.  He said these farm workers are "slaves."

High hopes

Mr. Tsvangirai says although he is regularly disappointed by ZANU-PF's
behavior within the inclusive government, there is hope for the future.

"Zimbabwe is moving forward," Tsvangirai said. "We have health workers and
medicines in our hospitals, teachers and books in our schools, food in our
supermarkets and granaries, water in our taps and fuel in our petrol
stations.  We have a dependable and stable multi-currency regime, a single
digit inflation.  And we have expected growth of over seven percent this
year."

Last weekend, as people gathered in Harare and second city Bulawayo to
discuss a new constitution, there was a spurt of political violence and
arrests.  Members of the public who attended some of the meetings blamed Mr.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF for attacking and injuring some members of the public,
throwing stones and aggressively disrupting meetings.  Some journalists say
they had to flee from ZANU-PF activists and the police.

Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Tsvangirai agreed two years ago that Zimbabwe needed a
new constitution before new elections.

After the weekend violence and disruptions of public meetings on the
constitution, Mr. Tsvangirai said that he will not take his MDC party into
any new elections if there is political violence.


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Exiled journalist's return to Zimbabwe

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/

23/09/2010 00:00:00
by Basildon Peta

EVEN dead, they would get me, the man from Mugabe's spy agency, the CIO, had
warned. My corpse would be shred into "mince meat" even if I returned to
Zimbabwe in a coffin for burial, he told me when our paths crossed in
Johannesburg.

I had been branded a "sell out", and an enemy of the state for my reports in
the foreign media on how the ruling party and its supporters waged their
land war against white farmers and then tortured and murdered hundreds of
black opposition supporters. The decision to leave my homeland permanently
came after I was told I was a dead man walking and after the arrival of an
A4 brown envelope filled with live ammunition and containing chilling words
in red telling me I was marked for death.
So now, nearly nine years on, as the captain tells the crew to prepare for
landing my heart is pounding.

In the years of my exile, Zimbabwe has been dragged through bloody violence,
economic collapse and political chaos. But the "unity government" formed in
February last year has, for now, survived, and I am risking a return home.

"Things have changed," I've been told. The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,
now Prime Minister to Robert Mugabe's President in the power-sharing
government, is among those who reassure me I will be safe. But Roy Bennett,
the MDC MP, broke his exile on the strength of similar assurances only to
end up sharing a cell with the uncollected corpses of prisoners. I wonder,
belatedly, if my decision to accept an invitation to a UN-sponsored media
conference is wise.

As the plane touches down at Harare International I recall how somebody has
just been arrested for the "crime" of describing the 86-year-old president
as an "old man". My own characterisations of the geriatric leader as a
"clueless buffoon" in The Independent and in the free South African press
would surely guarantee me lengthy incarceration if warrants were activated.

I've also had the dubious distinction of appearing twice on a list of 17
"saboteurs" whose passports would be seized if they ever returned, because
they had "badmouthed" the country abroad. The High Court nullified the
order. But this is a regime still defined by its flagrant disregard for the
rule of law and the decisions of the Zimbabwe courts.

The officer at the passport desk looks at my documents, appears to recognise
me, and then smiles and, in our native Shona, offers a warm welcome waving
me through. But the Zimbabwe I find on the other side of immigration is
certainly not the Zimbabwe I grew up in nor the Zimbabwe which once held so
much hope for Africa. It is not even the Zimbabwe I fled in February 2002.

From the airport I am taken into town in a UN vehicle, but we are
immediately plunged into darkness as there is no power in the entire eastern
part of the city. "Life without electricity, water and proper sanitation is
the norm here," the driver mutters.

Next morning, Christopher Mutsvangwa, the media czar in the ruling party
Zanu PF and a former ambassador to China, approaches the podium at the
conference. He prefaces his speech by welcoming me and urging me to feel
safe "even though we don't see eye to eye with you on many issues". I begin
to feel a bit more at ease.

I grew up in Chi Town, the local slang for Chitungwiza, a dormitory town
built during Ian Smith's apartheid regime to confine blacks from the Harare
factories outside working hours. We had severe overcrowding - a population
of 250,000 swelled to quadruple that figure soon after independence - but it
was nevertheless a liveable place. I cannot think of a single day in my
childhood when we went without running water or electricity. Cousins my age
from rural areas would visit us to take advantage of our electric light to
read and prepare for exams.

Now the Chitungwiza I revisit to find my ageing parents is a sprawling place
of three million people. Here, the claim that things have improved since the
deal that brought the MDC into government seems scarcely credible. The
consequences of Mugabe's misrule are everywhere. The roads are pocked, not
by potholes but by huge gullies. Even in my borrowed 4x4 it is a challenge
to navigate them. The "unity government" may have halted Zimbabwe's economic
freefall but the neglect of infrastructure here seems total. Rivers of
sewage water, from burst septic tanks, meander through the gullies. Nothing
that has broken seems to have been repaired for years.

Ten years is a long time not to have seen one's parents in their own home.
So I expect my father, now 72, to drop everything when I arrive. He rushes
to hug me but quickly returns to direct his hose-pipe into containers lined
up in his yard. Water supplies have just been restored after three months
and he must fill as many buckets as possible before the taps go dry again.
"This is how the country has become," he says sadly. The filled buckets will
keep him away from the long queues at a public borehole, for a few days at
least. Just as we go inside the house, the electricity re-connected some two
hours earlier after a long power-cut snaps off again. My welcome meal of
Sadza (maize meal porridge) is cooked on firewood.

My parents' stories about everyday survival are distressing enough although
hardly remarkable by Zimbabwe standards. They, at least, consider themselves
well off because of the modest sums that my sister and I send back in
dollars. None of the friends I grew up with in the area remain. Some have
died. Others have long since fled abroad. And those who stay live in dread
of becoming ill.

State hospitals, once staffed by the best-trained doctors and nurses in the
region are not just in tatters. Locals call them mortuaries. At one stage
ox-drawn ambulances had to be introduced because of crippling fuel
shortages. Mothers prefer to midwife their daughters at home rather than
send them to give birth in the clinics. Scarce drugs are available only to
those who can afford bribes. And basic equipment like bandages is still
lacking. "Being admitted to a ward is like being put on death row," I am
told by a neighbour.

I went to a bottom-of-the-ladder township high school but we had excellent
teachers. Zimbabwe, after all, had a proud and impressive education system.
Mugabe himself had started his career as a schoolteacher. Our school, which
was called Seke 4, had a decent science lab and a workshop for wood-work and
metal-work.

Even a poor shirt-factory worker like my father could afford our school fees
on his wages because the economy was stable. Now, at one school, a teacher
tells me they use candles in place of bunsen-burners. Even though school
attendance has improved since the crisis reached its trough in 2008, in many
rural areas the schools remain closed because the salaries are too low to
retain teachers, and there are no books. In the cities, children who would
be in class if they could afford the fees can be seen scavenging at dump
sites.

For a country that was considered affluent by African standards, the squalor
is heart-breaking, but I keep being told that things were a lot worse before
the formation of the coalition government. "We once went 13 months with no
running water. At least now, we get it back after a month - two or three
months at most," explains a neighbour.

The shops, empty two years ago, are again replenished with goods imported
from South Africa. The abolition of the Zimbabwe dollar in favour of the US
currency has restored some semblance of economic functioning. And the
violence that marked the peak of the crisis in 2008, when Mugabe embarked on
his murderous spree to cling to power in a presidential run-off vote, has
ceased in most urban areas - though MDC supporters at meetings to discuss a
new constitution have been attacked in recent days.

"The only items we could find in shops during 2008 were shoe polish, tissue
paper and sometimes candles," says a friend. "Now you can get anything as
long as you have the bucks. Above all, we are enjoying some peace."

But the goods in supermarkets are so out of the price range of the majority
as to be irrelevant. A civil servant's average monthly wage is US$150 yet
the average household electricity bill is double that amount despite
constant power cuts.

Unemployment is running at 90 per cent and once-thriving local industries
are either gone or running at just 20 per cent capacity. The influx of
capital required to revive them is not forthcoming. Though Western donors
continue to pour in humanitarian aid, the EU and US say the new government
has still not made enough progress to justify direct budgetary aid.

In Eastview Gardens in the Harare suburb of Eastlea I retrace my steps for
the first time in nearly a decade to the once-comfortable residential
complex I moved into after I started my career as a journalist and married.
It was a symbol of upward middle-class mobility and seen by many as a place
for the "lucky few". Residents had well-decorated two- and three-bed
apartments, paved interior roads, manicured gardens with beds of roses, and
tennis and basketball courts for the children.

The entire complex of 450 flats now resembles a slum. Balconies are lit by
candles. Paint has peeled off. No water has been supplied to individual
flats because of broken pipes that have gone unrepaired for two years. The
tenants must queue every day at a borehole sunk in the grounds. Like emblems
of what has happened to the country, rusting second-hand cars lie abandoned
in the grounds.

I stop by my local branch of Barclays bank to inquire about the 11 trillion
Zimbabwean dollars I ought by now to have accumulated from rent paid in by
my tenants over the years since I fled. "It does not quite work like that,"
the cashier explains as she tells me there is nothing in the account. I
remonstrate with her, pointing out that I surely deserve something from the
currency conversion.

"After dollarisation, we nullified all Zimbabwe dollar accounts. The best I
can do is open a new one for you if you've got at least US$50. Remember even
with your trillions you could not have bought a wheelbarrow," she says.

Despite the relief brought by the South African-brokered power-sharing deal
and the abolition of the Zimbabwe dollar, which has put a stop to joke
levels of inflation (banknotes worth tens of billions of dollars were being
issued at the worst point), Mugabe and his cronies remain firmly in charge.
Draconian laws remain in place and broadcasting remains a state monopoly.
State journalists at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation bring to mind
Soviet newscasters lost in time. I listen to one hour-long bulletin
dominated by ministerial speeches followed by an extra 40-minute clip of
Mugabe addressing mourners at the funeral of his brother-in-law.

Morgan Tsvangirai hangs on even though he is regularly humiliated, trashed
as a "lackey of the West" in the state media which now routinely describes
Mugabe as "Head of State and Government and commander in chief of the
defence forces," as if to rub salt in the wounds of Tsvangirai's
powerlessness. Many Zimbabweans fear that Mugabe and the military men who
prop him up are simply playing along with power-sharing while they regroup
for the next election. The Prime Minister, who was himself viciously beaten
in detention at the height of the violence, acknowledges it wasn't easy to
join the coalition. Some of his own senior party members advised against it.
But he insists it was his best option to save Zimbabweans from an even worse
fate.

While political stability remains at best fragile, and reports of violence
in the rural areas persist, foreign investors are staying away. They are
waiting for Mugabe to go before they will risk their money. Mr Mutsvangwa,
the man who welcomed me so publicly at the conference, defends new
"indiginisation" laws requiring all companies with a value of US$500,000 or
more to give at least 51 per cent majority equity to blacks. A country whose
citizens don't control its resources is not worth the name, he says.

British companies like Rio Tinto, Standard Bank, Barclays, British
Petroleum, Anglo American, Old Mutual and many others will be affected. BP
is already disposing of its assets in Zimbabwe. But in an example of the
ways in which the governing parties are contradicting each other, Mr
Tsvangirai claims the 51 percent threshold is simply a target. The
thresholds are being revised and will be set on a sector-by-sector basis, he
insists. Officials from Mugabe's Zanu PF party repeatedly state the
opposite.

From the centre of Harare it is a short drive to the north-eastern suburb of
Glen Lorne, a place my sister tells me has changed a lot in my absence. Up
on the high ground of this leafy outskirt, much extended by the acquisition
of white farms, I find Folyjon Crescent - and it feels like another country.
This placid spot, with its jacaranda trees and green lawns, is home to some
of those who assisted Mugabe in his plunder of Zimbabwe. Here, behind
electric gates, are obscenely palatial mansions of up to three or even four
storeys, some boasting internal elevators, floodlit tennis courts,
magnificent gardens and, of course, swimming pools. Johannesburg's richest
enclaves may have mansions to compare but they are hidden inside gated
communities. In Harare, they are on open display.

The homes of one or two army generals are particularly breathtaking. No
wonder. According to Western diplomats, much of the country's vast diamond
wealth (the Marange fields contain a quarter of the world's diamond
reserves) has been diverted by the heads of the armed forces to help them
dictate the terms of the succession battle that will play out when Mugabe
finally dies.

While his people continue to struggle to eke out an existence from the
debris of the shattered nation, Mugabe himself lives out his days in high
style. From the splendour of a private US$25 million 30-bedroomed mansion in
the suburb of Borrowdale, to which he and his wife Grace moved after an
assassination attempt at the old and less glamorous State House, he
continues to destroy his once-prosperous nation even as a struggle for power
between his ruling party's rival factions rages.

As my departing SAA flight taxis onto the runway, I try to comprehend the
patience of my fellow countrymen. Have they not been pushed to a point from
where nothing is left to lose? But the stoicism of a people who have adapted
to whatever mess their geriatric leader throws at them has always been
remarkable. They have been beaten into submission, are exhausted from the
daily struggle for survival, and now terrified by what will happen at the
next election.

If the tyrant had any honour, he would have quit long ago to save his people
from their suffering. But nightly, on the state TV news, as his successors
jockey for position behind his back, spreading rumours that the old man is
dying, he remains steadfast in his wilful delusion, no sign of shame on his
botoxed face, aware, perhaps, of the catastrophe around him, but still
heaping blame on everyone but himself.
ZIMBABWE IN NUMBERS

11,400,000 Country's population

62/1,000 Infant mortality, per live births

42 Life expectancy (down from 44 years in 1999)

$355 Average annual income per head of population (IMF)

790/100,000 Prevalence of TB, double the rate in 1999

15.3 per cent HIV/Aids rate

90 per centAdult literacy

90 per centUnemployment rate

(The Independent - UK)


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ZCTF Report - Sept 2010

        ZIMBABWE CONSERVATION TASK FORCE         
 
 
 
22nd September 2010
 
INVASION OF DENLYNIAN AND TAMARI WILDLIFE FARM
 
It is now 10 years since the implementation of the Land Reform Programme and the very few game farms we have left, are still being invaded.
 
I recently paid a visit to Denlynian and Tamari Wildlife Farm in the Beit Bridge area, after receiving reports that this property was invaded by a group calling themselves "Zhove Conservancy Co-operative." The members of this group include Police, Army, Civil Servants, Rural Council Employees, War Vets and ZANU PF activists.
 
The invaders have spent the past 10 years vandalising the properties and slaughtering the wildlife which was previously quite abundant. They have been especially targeting zebra and eland. The eland population has dropped from 973 to 374 - a loss of 560 animals and the zebra population has fallen from 871 to 163 - a loss of 708 animals. The invaders have slaughtered 300 zebra for their skins in the past 2 months alone.
 
   
 
The owners of the properties checked with the Deeds Registry and found that there is no such organization as the Zhove Conservancy Co-operative registered. They took legal action against the invaders and the courts ruled that the invaders be evicted but this has been ignored and the police are reluctant to assist.
 
                  ZEBRA SKULLS
In addition to the decimation of the wildlife, the invaders have also burnt approximately 200 hectares of trees, most of which have been standing for the past 300 years. No Environmental Impact Assessment was carried out and they are creating an ecological disaster. The game farms are situated in a low rainfall area which is only suitable for wildlife and the ecosystem there is now so fragile that if the land is tilled, the soil will end up in the river.
 
7km of 16 strand game fencing has been stolen to make wire snares - making a total of 112 km of wire. All that remains of the game fencing are the bare poles.
 
    
   WIRE SNARES RETRIEVED FROM THE BUSH                          BARE FENCE POLES
 
We have just received an update that 7 animals were killed last weekend, comprising eland, impala and wildebeest and the slaughter is continuing as we speak.
 
DESNARING OF A BUFFALO BULL
 
Thanks to the donations we received of M99, a wire snare was removed from a buffalo bull on Dett Vlei recently.
 
Esther van der Meer of Painted Dog Conservation was alerted to the fact that a buffalo bull was wandering around with a copper wire snare around its neck. Esther, with the assistance of her husband and Peter Blinston darted the animal and successfully removed the snare.
 
 
ESTHER AND HER TEAM REMOVING THE SNARE
 
ELEPHANTS PERISH IN FIRE
 
Ten elephants were burned to death during a bush fire at Derbyshire Ranch in Shangani, Matabeleland South Province.
 
It is alleged that widespread bush fires have engulfed much of Zimbabwe and most of them are started deliberately, mainly by hunters to clear the bushes. In the past few weeks, ten people have also died as a result of the bush fires.
 
NARROW ESCAPE FOR GEOFF BLYTH
 
On the 6th September, a Kariba resident, Geoff Blyth was attacked by an elephant. Geoff, who does a lot of work assisting with snare removals etc., was riding his bicycle for exercise along the Power Line Road near Chawara in Kariba when he saw an elephant cow nearby in the bush. To his horror, the elephant started to charge him. He pedalled as fast as he could to try and get away but then the bicycle chain came off so he jumped off the bicycle and started running for his life. He couldn't find anywhere to take refuge and the elephant was gaining on him so he threw himself into a shallow ditch full of sand by the side of the road.
 
He curled up in a foetal position and the elephant pinned him down with her knee and ran her left tusk through his back. Her right tusk pierced his upper thigh, just missing his femoral artery. She finally backed off and Geoff was rushed to hospital in Harare where he had to undergo surgery.
 
Geoff was very lucky to escape with his life and he attributes this to the sand he was lying in which cushioned him against the weight of the elephant.
 
There has been a lot of shooting of elephants, not only in Kariba but country-wide and due to this, the elephants have become extremely skittish and dangerous. We would like to warn everyone to exercise extreme caution when elephants are in the vicinity. 
 
ELEPHANTS KILLED BY POACHERS
 
Three weeks ago, 13 elephants were killed by a gang of poachers in the Hurungwe Safari area.
 
National Parks have recovered 8 of the tuskless carcasses and are still searching for the remaining five.
 
On the 10th September, Hurungwe and Guruve Police arrested the gang of 9 poachers after they tried to evade the police at a road block. Upon searching their vehicle, the police found 25 tusks, elephant tails, an unlicenced rifle and machetes.
 
In March, 10 elephant carcasses were found in Gonarezhou National Park and it is believed that international poachers were behind the crime.
 
SUSPECTED RHINO POACHERS ARRESTED
 
7 suspected rhino poachers were arrested in the Chiredzi area recently and a 303 rifle fitted with a silencer, telescopic sight and a carbine was recovered. The suspects consisted of 3 South Africans and 4 Zimbabweans.
 
The latest poaching activities in the Save Valley Conservancy resulted in the death of a rhino, leaving its calf badly wounded by gunshots. National Parks have deployed a team that is currently on high alert following the heightened poaching activities.
 
GROENEWALD ARRESTED
 
We are very pleased to announce that Dawie Groenewald and his wife, Sariette of Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris were arrested in South Africa in connection with rhino poaching.
 
They were arrested on Monday along with a professional hunter, Tielman Erasmus, 2 veterinarians, Dr Karel Toet and Dr Manie du Plessis, and Toet's wife, Marisa.
 
Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris have been linked to unethical and illegal hunting for several years and were banned from hunting in Zimbabwe in 2004.
 
 

Johnny Rodrigues
Chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force
Landline:        263 4 336710
Landline/Fax: 263 4 339065
Mobile:           263 712 603 213
Email:            
galorand@mweb.co.zw
Website:        www.zctf.mweb.co.zw
Website:        www.zimbabwe-art.com
Facebook:    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15148470211

 
The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force relies soley on public donations. Your donation can help to preserve the wildlife in Zimbabwe. If you would like to assist, please contact us.


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U.S. hands over digital recording & archiving equipment to Zim Parliament

Harare, September 23rd 2010: United States Ambassador Charles Ray officially handed over audio and other digital equipment to the Parliament of Zimbabwe on Wednesday as part of an ongoing effort to boost the capacity of parliamentarians and promote good governance.

 

“I am proud to join Zimbabwe’s legislative leaders to let the voices of the representatives of the people of Zimbabwe be heard throughout these chambers and across the land. The system unveiled today will help shed light and transparency on the actions of parliament and parliamentarians,” said the U.S. Ambassador at a function attended by legislators, diplomats and senior government officials including the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai.

 

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), working with the Southern Africa Parliamentary Support Trust (SAPST), funded the purchase and installation of the equipment to enhance the documentation and archiving of parliamentary debates and other proceedings in the august house. The state of the art digital equipment will enable Parliament to improve its ability to make official proceedings accessible to the media and public. 

 

The equipment included 211 microphones, loudspeakers and headphones in both the Senate and the House of Assembly, microphones and servers in the six committee rooms, recording software, PC’s and monitors for use by Hansard reporters.

 

“Parliament will face a busy and full agenda when it sits next. I am humbled to help inaugurate this small, yet important, contribution from the American people which I hope will make your voices accessible throughout the land and into history for the difficult, yet vital, decisions and actions you take on behalf of the people of this great country,” said Ambassador Ray who was accompanied by the USAID Mission Director, Karen Freeman, and senior Embassy officials.

 

Parliamentarians welcomed the new state of the art equipment installation, which was done by South African company Questek Advanced Technologies (Pty) Ltd.  Hon. Lovemore Moyo, Speaker of Parliament, described the occasion as a “milestone achievement for the seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe.”

 

“It is gratifying to see that the work carried out over the last year has resulted in improvement in efficiency, transparency and effectiveness in our parliamentary business. One can now follow parliamentary proceedings in both chambers and six committee rooms,” said Moyo. 

 

Speaking the same occasion, Prime Minister Tsvangirai, who is the leader of government business in Parliament, called on development partners to invest more in strengthening Zimbabwe’s democratic institutions. 

 

“I wish to call upon all development partners to continue supporting and strengthening our public institutions which have suffered decline for so long. As Zimbabweans, we are grateful for this support,” said the Prime Minister. He noted that the country has “great potential as a nation to serve the people.”

 

“Once our public institutions are fully functional, we will definitely be able to deliver real change to the people of Zimbabwe,” said the Prime Minister.

 

With the new technology, Hansard reporters only come into the Houses to make note of interjections and the rest will be captured by the recording software. Audio output from the two Houses will now be captured on a dedicated server and can be played back, paused, and re-wound. This improvement will enable Parliament to compile a digital archive of all its proceedings in the respective Houses, as well as in the Committee Rooms.  In addition, it will now be possible for journalists to obtain audio recordings of any sitting of Parliament and Committee proceedings.  

 

USAID Mission Director Karen Freeman noted that her organisation, which is also supporting the Parliament-led Constitution making process through the United Nations Development Program, had since 2001 worked with Parliament to strengthen its procedures and processes through technical assistance on the legislative process.

 

“We believe that this audio equipment will foster the debate and discussion needed to come to a consensus on what should be incorporated into the new constitution and how, later on, that language should be upheld in law,” said the USAID mission director.

 

In an interview, Moyo said Parliament had completed training of staff in the use of the new equipment and will assist members to get acquainted with the new equipment on their return from the constitution making process.

 

“We will work with all legislators to help them appreciate the new technology, and improve the quality of their contributions,” said the Speaker.

 

# # #

 

Note: Images available on our Facebook site and/ or upon request.  

 

This report was prepared and distributed by the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Section. Queries and comments should be submitted to Sharon Hudson Dean, Public Affairs Officer, Sharon Hudson-Dean, Public Affairs Officer, E-mail: hararepas@state.gov, Tel: 263-4-758800/1; Fax: 263-4-758802

Url. http://harare.usembassy.gov

 

Follow us on Twitter!

 

 


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Billionaire Branson launches Zim investment initiative

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
23 September 2010

Billionaire Richard Branson, who heads the Virgin business group, has
officially launched a new initiative in Zimbabwe to encourage investment in
the country.

Virgin Unite, the philanthropic arm of Branson's Virgin Group, has helped
create Enterprise Zimbabwe, which was launched in New York on Wednesday. The
group aims to connect philanthropists and commercial investors with
different opportunities in Zimbabwe. Branson said this week that the idea is
to provide a 'safe haven' for people to invest through.

"In life, people have got to take risks. If everybody waits on the sidelines
it will be the people who suffer," said Branson. "The present state of
politics in Zimbabwe is by no means perfect, but it's a great deal better."
"Zimbabwe, of all the African countries, it's got the best chance of getting
back ... it just needs a bit of help being kick-started," he said.

Branson has this week come under fire from ZANU PF supporters, who have
accused the businessman of being a "vulture," disguised as an angel. Tendai
Midzi, who writes for the ZANU PF supporting Zimbabwe Guardian website, on
Tuesday said that Branson's intentions are a late attempt to take advantage
of Zimbabwe's resources. Midzi said that the billionaire is attempting to
counter "the power of China." "Zimbabwe does not need investments disguised
as 'philanthropic work' now," Midzi wrote "The international community has
now realised that this jewel we call Zimbabwe, having discovered the largest
deposit of diamonds, in now able to lift itself out of the poverty that the
West helped create in the first place."

Details about how Branson's investment 'safe-haven' will be created are yet
to be clarified and the Virgin Unite group has so far not responded to SW
Radio Africa's requests for an interview. But there are concerns that
Branson's investment urgings are premature. Robert Mugabe has insisted that
the controversial business indigenisation programme will go ahead, which
will see foreign companies in the country forced to hand over 51% of their
shares to pre-selected Zimbabweans.

At the same time, the illegal seizures of commercial land have continued,
despite most properties being protected by court orders. Many farms are also
meant to be protected by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion
Agreements (BIPPA's) signed between Zimbabwe and other countries. But these
are also being completely ignored, allowing Mugabe's loyalists to seize as
much land as possible.
Economic analyst Luke Zunga told SW Radio Africa week that it is too soon to
invest in Zimbabwe, saying Robert Mugabe needs to be out of the picture for
a safe investment zone to be created.
"I might sound pessimistic but as long as the president is Robert Mugabe
then nothing will change," Zunga said. "Zimbabwe does not have a safe
investment climate now."


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"Investors Should Help Democratise Zimbabwe"

http://www.ipsnews.net/

By Stanley Kwenda

JOHANNESBURG, Sep 23, 2010 (IPS) - While investors need assurances about
property rights and the protection of investments before they will invest in
Zimbabwe's precarious economy, the state of democracy in the Southern
African country should also be a consideration.

These were some of the opinions of businesspeople and diplomats
participating in a recent summit on Zimbabwe's future.

Human rights violations and land grabbing shattered Zimbabwe's democracy and
economy during the past decade as a result of President Robert Mugabe and
his ZANU-PF party's rejection of democratic process.

Amidst extra-legal killings, detentions, torture and mass displacement of
people, the Zimbabwean dollar crashed, shop shelves emptied and the country
registered one of the world's worst peacetime inflation rates.

A power-sharing deal between ZANU-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) restored relative political stability and led to the dollarisation of
the economy. The country has since exhibited some signs of recovery, both
democratically and economically.

Prime minister and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought to assure investors
in highly emotive language at the summit that his country had turned a
corner.

"We chose progress over violence, polarisation, decline and decay. Zimbabwe
is moving forward from the darkness of madness and self-destruction to a new
dawn," he said at the summit, held on Sep 16 in Johannesburg, South Africa,
and hosted by the international business magazine "The Economist".

"The Economist" news editor Adam Roberts argued that signs of renewed
interest in the country could be noticed but that it remained unclear
whether the recovery could be sustained.

"For the first time in a long while you have investors seriously considering
if this is the moment to invest in Zimbabwe and you have Zimbabweans in the
diaspora contemplating if this is the time to return," Roberts said.

"But many serious tests are yet to be passed, and the diaspora, investors,
donors and others need a great deal more assurances," he added.

Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean businessperson Chris Goromonzi told IPS that,
"it is time Zimbabwe creates opportunities and conditions for companies to
do business. This involves conducive legislation that protects investment."

German ambassador to Zimbabwe Albrecht Conze acknowledged that progress was
being registered but said change was "millimetre-ing" forward and that real
progress was possible only once a new constitution that guaranteed private
property was agreed.

White commercial farmers' representatives warned that legal disputes and
claims for substantial compensation for expropriated land could not be
wished away.

"The most important thing is to address issues of property rights and rights
of the individual. The fact that farmers who lost their land have not been
compensated should serve as a warning to would-be investors," John
Worsley-Worswick from the Justice for Agriculture farmers' lobby group told
IPS.

Concern was also raised over government plans for "indigenisation" -- 
transferring majority ownership of companies to black Zimbabweans -- which
are seen in some quarters as an attempt by Mugabe to expropriate businesses
for his allies.

Tsvangirai said that the indigenisation measures are being amended to take
investors' concerns into account.

Zimbabwean minister of economic planning and investment promotion Tapiwa
Mashakada said that the government was working at reducing red tape that
made it difficult to do business and to put in place the necessary
legislation to protect investments.

"We are working on an investment protection bill so that we can lay down the
guarantees for and obligations of investors," Mashakada told IPS.

But Zimbabwean businessperson Tawanda Nyambirai told IPS that foreign
investors should use their businesses to help democratise Zimbabwe. "The
consideration should be human rights, whether political, social or
economic," said Nyambirai.

"They have to ask themselves whether they are investing in Robert Mugabe or
in Zimbabwe. Investment should be a strategy that encourages
democratisation," said Nyambirai. (END)


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WOZA’s Magodonga Mahlangu on Behind the Headlines

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
 

Written by SW Radio Africa   
Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:11
 
Background: The holding cells at Harare Central Police station, overflowing with human waste, prompted pressure group WOZA to state their intention to sue co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone.  WOZA coordinator Magodonga Mahlangu speaks to SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma about their arrest and detention in April after a WOZA demonstration against power utility ZESA and the appalling conditions in the prison.
Interview broadcast 16 September 2010

Lance Guma: The filthy state of holding cells at Harare Central police station is set to become the subject of a landmark law suit by pressure group WOZA following their last arrest and detention in April this year.
Jenni Williams, Magodonga Mahlangu, Clara Manjengwa, Selena Madukani and 67 other activists from WOZA are suing co-Home Affairs ministers Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone over their detention in cells that had toilets overflowing with human waste and no running water.
Now this week I have one of the WOZA activists Magodonga Mahlangu joining us on the programme. First things first Miss Mahlangu describe for us conditions inside the cells at Harare Central that prompted you to make this decision.

Magodonga Mahlangu:
Yah Harare Central is very filthy and not fit for anyone to be kept there in cells or even to be working there. The moment you step at the front of the detention room, the smell, the stinking smell it just suffocates you. Once you are in the cells the cells are filthy with fresh human faeces, old, as old as three weeks or a month, it has never been cleaned and there’s also urine all over the floor. You name it you can find condoms, you can find pads, anything on the floor, that place is not being cleaned yet we are supposed to go there, sleeping barefooted wearing just one bottom and one up.

Guma: Now you say in your letter stating your intention to sue that you were forced to remove your shoes and all undergarments until each of you had a single top and bottom. Were you given any explanation why this was necessary?

Mahlangu: Unfortunately at Harare central police station or any police station if you try for example you ask something you are told that the moment you are arrested you have no rights. They say if you are a prisoner or if you are a suspect for that matter you don’t have any rights so at the time we asked we did not get an answer, in fact there just confrontation, we tried to say we have the right to do this, we can do this, why are we not allowed to wear clothes, they will just tell you, harrass you further, even the use of a toilet paper. Can you imagine, we had to fight to use that, because the moment I stepped into that police station, the smell it just made me have a running stomach there and then so I had a running tummy and I wasn’t allowed to keep a piece of toilet paper, I had to fight, I kept it by force.

Guma: You have been arrested and detained at Harare Central police station before in your many years of activism, what was different in April that prompted you to contemplate this law suit?

Mahlangu:
The conditions of the toilets. You cannot even keep animals there, it is worse now, and its surprising that this is the time were they can buy disinfectants and other detergents to clean the cells but they are not doing that, they are not giving priority to that. They are only arresting people and then dumping them there. Even for the police officers who work there, it’s not healthy for them. But for you, someone who has to sleep there, eat there, there’s no running water, everything is filthy.

Guma: Just remind our listeners in case they have forgotten why did they arrest you in April in the first place?
Mahlangu: Yah we had a peaceful protest to Megawatt  ZESA office in Harare where we were saying that it’s very unfair, it’s grossly unfair for them to be charging us, billing us exorbitant bills yet we are not getting any supply any electricity supply. We carried out a survey that showed maybe within a month we get seven days full supply of electricity so we had gone there for them to address this issue because now we had kept incurring bills, especially those with fixed billing meters. Whether you had electricity or no electricity, you still had to pay the full amount of electricity for the month. If you don’t pay it incurs interest so you are always incurring debt, you are always spending more money on alternative energy like paraffin, wood and other things, gas and other things and the candles.

Guma:
It must make you angry that even the police who arrested you suffer because of these power cuts that you were demonstrating about, so it’s kind of sadly funny that they should be doing this to you when you are raising an issue which also affects them.

Mahlangu:
Yah it’s very sad and the fact that we were kept there for six days and then we were never taken to court because the AG’s office said there was no case against us. Six days in those filthy conditions to be told there is no case. Moreover to mention something that is very crucial here this was the week of, the period of independence day it went in the independence day, the 18th of April we spent it in custody yet the liberation fighters, our brothers, our fathers and our mothers fought so that we could be able to free express ourselves and get our issues across freely by the means that we choose.

Guma:
Now I spoke to co-Home Affairs minister Theresa Makone in July this year and she blamed a lack of resources for the appalling state of cells. She was previously Public Works minister and said where she needed a budget of US$ 90 million to maintain government buildings throughout the country, she was lucky if she got more than two million in a year. Do you believe this is the reason why conditions are like this, that there’s no money to maintain the police cells?

Mahlangu: I don’t think that’s the case because, I think they are prioritising that because what we are talking about, the infrastructure is there, everything is there, only it needs to be maintained, kept not by renovating or painting, it’s just cleaning with detergent and water, keeping, making sure policing the people who are cleaning because I will tell you the tax payers money is going to someone who is being paid to clean those facilities, those premises, they are not doing that.
What we have seen that they will use urine with a mop, mopping urine and then they will mop the entire place, there’s no supervision and the political power, power from ministers involved, concerned and the commissioner himself and other people involved in this ministry to make sure that this job is done. We are not talking about millions of money. We are just talking about someone doing their job and being monitored just basic things that are used.

Guma: Do you sense Miss Mahlangu the absence of any political will to address the issue of the conditions in the holding cells because to a large extent ZANU PF uses them to detain political opponents on many occasions so it suits them to keep conditions the way they are.

Mahlangu: Yah that’s the problem in Zimbabwe if you are a suspect or arrested, going, being arrested, you are serving a sentence whether you are guilty or not guilty. And the only thing that I want the listeners to know is that if you are kept in filthy cells, you can have your property stolen. I personally had my memory card from my phone stolen by the police officers, of which after that I went and reported, I have a case number, since then, since April they are still investigating who stole yet I told them that the person who stole my memory card from my phone is anyone who was on duty from the 15th of April when we were arrested and then between 5.30pm and the 20th of April that was Tuesday at 10am when we were released because when I booked in my phone it had everything and I’m not the only one who had lost items, it’s only that I’m the only one who had the guts to complain to the police. Police are stealing people’s, prisoners’ things and they go Scot free.

Guma:
It’s been quite a whirlwind last 12 months for you Magodonga with some of the awards that you have received, particularly in the United States, meeting the Secretary of State, meeting the President. Describe this for us, how have those experiences been? You go through all this and at the end of the day you do get recognition for your work. How does that make you feel?

Mahlangu: Yah it is something that is very, it gives us a moral boost as an organisation and as individuals but we don’t want recognition from outsiders, from, yes it’s good to get recognition from the States and other organisations, the international community but we very much hopeful for our own leadership, our own government to recognise us because we are not doing this to be recognised we want to fix this country, we want to be proud of our country, that’s why we are doing this job.
They must recognise the work that we are doing. Its not that we are against them as rulers but they are not delivering the promises of independence and social justice should be recognised. Inhuman conditions shouldn’t be there, they should see that we are human beings, simple things like cleaning the toilets, clearing sewerage from the streets, picking rubbish weekly, doing simple things.
We are not saying they should pour in money, we are saying that should see that they are trying as a nation if you are trying and struggling as a nation to bring a nation to a better place, it’s OK for us but the problem is that these politicians are not concerned about us, they are just concerned about power.

Guma: My last question for you Miss Mahlangu is a general one. We now have had two years of a coalition government between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations, what would you say have been its successes and what would you say have been its failures, just in brief?

Mahlangu:
I think the major, the successes that maybe we now can have access to some people who are in government that we can address our issues to even though they don’t do much the fact that they are aware of those things even if they don’t do much it’s something that is consoling that we can talk to some government officials unlike before. Before, we couldn’t do that.
But the worse thing that we are hoping, that an ordinary person was hoping for in Zimbabwe was that they would address the education system, they would address the collapsing health delivery system but unfortunately that is not happening. Yes the schools have opened but what we are seeing is that there are more dropouts because of the teachers, they are not paying teachers enough, incentive for teachers, the parents are literally running the schools, they are buying all the things for the school.
It’s not like they don’t have money because we realise that most of our candidates at O level and A level did not sit for exams because of failing to pay and yet we have the audacity, the Minister of Sport and Culture in the government itself have the audacity to spend US$ 1.8 million that was used to invite Brazil (national football team) to come and play for 90 minutes in this country. That money could have gone to the education of our children, those 13 000 that had failed to sit for exams could have sat for the exams if the authorities had paid to subsidise their exam fees. This is one thing that’s makes us very mad as an ordinary persons that there is no prioritizing, they always get their priorities wrong.

Guma:
That was Magodonga Mahlangu from Women of Zimbabwe Arise otherwise known as WOZA joining us on Behind the Headlines this week. Miss Mahlangu thank you very much for your time.

Mahlangu: Thank you very much for having me.

Feedback can be sent to lance@swradioafrica.com or http://twitter.com/lanceguma


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Keeping us mum

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Written by The Editor
Wednesday, 22 September 2010 10:06

The weekend of violence in Harare comes as no surprise. Everything is going
perfectly according to plan - for Zanu (PF). At the very beginning of the
constitutional consultation process, a retired army major launched Operation
Chimumumu, with the full backing of the Joint Operations Command - the cabal
of generals that really rules Zimbabwe today.
It has always been their firm intention that the people of Zimbabwe should
not be allowed to exercise their right to freedom of expression. The Kariba
Draft is Zanu (PF)'s constitution of choice and that is that. They have been
determined all along to foist this upon the people of Zimbabwe - in just the
same way as they have forced themselves upon us.
The generals' control of the means of power is evidenced by the behaviour of
the police last weekend. The COPAC consultations in Harare have been
suspended because of political violence. The media is full of reports that
truckloads of policemen either sat and watched or actively participated in
the violence - on the side of Zanu (PF). These reports prove beyond any
reasonable doubt that innocent and law-abiding citizens cannot rely on the
nation's police force to protect them, or to maintain law and order.
It is ironic that before the COPAC meetings got underway, the Commissioner
of Police, Augustine Chihuri, demanded - and received - millions of dollars
to be paid to the force for the specific purpose of safeguarding the
consultative meetings.
In future, COPAC would be better off paying for private security guards to
provide protection at meetings - rather than wasting money to enable thugs
in police uniform to disrupt their meetings, or to stand idly by while Zanu
(PF) hooligans disrupt them.
Throughout the consultative process this newspaper has carried reports of
violence and disruptions at COPAC meetings around the country.   There has
been a clear, coordinated pattern orchestrated by Zanu (PF) to keep
Zimbabweans mum, while a carefully selected, vociferous few supported the
Kariba Draft.
The behaviour of the shamelessly partisan police force in attacking
peaceful, un-armed demonstrators - mostly women and children - as they
marched in Harare on Monday is but another case in point. Zanu (PF) has been
consistent - the voice of the people will not be heard


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Bill Watch 37/2010 - 23rd September [Updated list of Ministers and Deputy Ministers]

BILL WATCH 37/2010

[23rd September 2010]

Updated list of Ministers and Deputy Ministers

There have so many requests for an updated list of Ministers and Deputy Ministers that we are sending it out as a Bill Watch.  The following list reflects the current position.  It takes account of:

·      the reshuffle of MDC-T Ministers and Deputy Ministers announced by the Prime Minister on 23rd June

·      the elevation of former Minister of State John Nkomo to Vice-President

·      the late Gibson Sibanda’s ceasing to be a Minister because he did not hold a Parliamentary seat.

Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers

Prime Minister:  Morgan Tsvangirai [MDC-T]

Deputy Prime Minister:  Arthur Mutambara [MDC-M]

Deputy Prime Minister:  Thokozani Khupe [MDC-T]

Ministers

Ministry

Minister

Party

Deputy Minister

Party

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development

Joseph Made

ZANU-PF

Roy Bennett [not yet sworn in]

MDC-T

Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs

Eric Matinenga

MDC-T

None

 

Defence

Emmerson Mnangagwa

ZANU-PF

None

 

Economic Planning and Investment Promotion

Tapiwa Mashakada

MDC-T

Samuel Undenge

ZANU-PF

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture

David Coltart

MDC-M

Lazarus Dokora 

ZANU-PF

Energy and Power Development

Elton Mangoma

MDC-T

Hubert Nyanhongo

ZANU-PF

Environment and Natural Resources Management

Francis Nhema

ZANU-PF

None

 

Finance

Tendai Biti

MDC-T

None

 

Foreign Affairs

Simbarashe Mumbengegwi 

ZANU-PF

Moses Mzila Ndlovu

MDC-M

Health and Child Welfare

Henry Madzorera

MDC-T

Douglas Mombeshora

ZANU-PF

Higher and Tertiary Education

Stan Mudenge

ZANU-PF

Lutho Addington Tapela

MDC-M

Home Affairs 

[Shared Ministry]

Kembo Mohadi

Theresa Makoni

ZANU-PF

MDC-T

None

 

Housing and Social Amenities

Giles Mutsekwa

MDC-T

None

 

Industry and Commerce

Welshman Ncube

 

MDC-M

Mike Bimha

ZANU-PF

Information Communication Technology

Nelson Chamisa

MDC-T

None

 

Justice and Legal Affairs

Patrick Chinamasa

ZANU-PF

Obert Gutu

MDC-T

Labour and Social Welfare

Paurina Gwanyanya

MDC-T

Tracy Mutinhiri

ZANU-PF

Lands and Rural Resettlement

Herbert Murerwa

ZANU-PF

None

 

Local Government, Urban and Rural Development

Ignatius Chombo

ZANU-PF

Cecil Zvidzai

MDC-T

Media, Information and Publicity

Webster Shamu

ZANU-PF

Murisi Zvizvai

MDC-T

Mines and Mining Development

Obert Mpofu

ZANU-PF

Gift Chimanikire

MDC-T

Public Service

Eliphas Mukonoweshuro

MDC-T

Andrew Langa

ZANU-PF

Public Works

Joel Gabuza

MDC-T

Aguy Georgias

ZANU-PF

Regional Integration and International Co-operation

Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga

MDC-M

Reuben Marumahoko

ZANU-PF

Science and Technology

Heneri Dzinotyiwei

MDC-T

None

 

Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operative Development

Sithembiso Nyoni

ZANU-PF

None

 

State Enterprises and Parastatals

Gorden Moyo

MDC-T

Walter Chidhakwa

ZANU-PF

Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Walter Mzembi

ZANU-PF

None

 

Transport and Infrastructural Development

Nicholas Goche

ZANU-PF

Tichaona Mudzingwa

MDC-T

Water Resources and Development

Samuel Sipepa Nkomo

MDC-T

None

 

Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development

Olivia Muchena

ZANU-PF

Jesse Majome

MDC-T

Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment

Saviour Kasukuwere

ZANU-PF

Tongai Matutu

MDC-T

 

Ministers of State who are Cabinet Members

Minister of State for National Security in the President’s Office

Sydney Sekeramayi

ZANU-PF

Minister of State for Presidential Affairs

Didymus Mutasa

ZANU-PF

Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office

Jameson Timba

MDC-T

 

Ministers of State who are NOT Cabinet Members

Minister of State in Vice-President Nkomo's Office

Flora Bhuka

ZANU-PF

Minister of State in Vice-President Mujuru's Office

Sylvester Nguni

ZANU-PF

Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office “Healing Organ”

Sekai Holland

MDC-T

 

Note: there is a pending case in the High Court questioning the legality of the appointment of Ministers who were sworn in after the quota of Ministers stated in the Constitution, as modified by Constitution Amendment 19, had been filled.  The Ministers in question are Savior Kasukuwere, Joseph Made, Walter Mzembi, Flora Bhuka, Sylvester Nguni [ZANU-PF], Henry Madzorera, Giles Mutsekwa and Sekai Holland [MDC-T].  [Note: John Nkomo was also sworn in late but is no longer a Minister.]  [See Bill Watch 36 for more details]

 

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.

 


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Constitution Watch 20/1010 of 21st September [COPAC Outreach Meetings: Statistics as at 12th September]

  

CONSTITUTION WATCH 20/2010

[21st September 2010]

COPAC Outreach Meetings: Statistics as at 12th September

The table below gives details of meetings from the beginning of the outreach on 23rd June up to 12th September.  Attendance figures are the official ones from the COPAC Secretariat.

Completed meetings:  Meetings in Mashonaland East have been completed.

Ongoing Meetings:   Meetings are not yet finished in Kariba, Rushinga, Beit Bridge, Umguza, Gokwe and Buhera districts.  Also, “mopping-up meetings” are underway to cover rural wards in other provinces where scheduled meetings were called off or not completed – dates and venues are being arranged at provincial level, and were not available from the COPAC central office.  There will also be new meetings scheduled for some wards in the Harare metropolitan area where meetings over the weekend had to be cancelled because of violent disruptions – the dates for the replacement meetings are still to be announced.

All meetings are expected to be completed by the end of next week. 

 

Meetings Held 23rd June to 12th September

Province

No. of Meetings

No. of Participants

No. of Males

No. of Females

No. of Youths

No. of Special Needs

Average attendance per meeting

Mash East

514

133 485

46 505

53 150

32 800

1 030

260

Mash West

498

104 314

45 715

37 963

20 353

283

209

Manicaland

556

102 974

40 564

46 216

15 388

806

185

Mat South

308

31 205

12 983

13 704

4 387

131

101

Mash Central

567

130 340

44 671

49 628

35 194

847

230

Mat North

467

36 793

15 192

14 030

7 358

213

78

Masvingo

531

103 040

39 711

44 021

18 734

574

194

Midlands

555

71 971

32 468

28 885

10 286

332

130

TOTAL

3 996

714 122

277 809

287 597

144 500

4 216

185

 

 

 

38.9%

40.27%

20.23%

0.59%

 

 

1.                Women’s attendance slightly outweighs attendance by men.

2.                Youth attendance figures are considerably lower than the estimated percentage of youth in the population.  This has been acknowledged by COPAC, which has announced that there will be special outreach meetings for youth over the weekend 25th-26th September at venues to be announced. 

3.                Youth and special needs attendance figures are not broken down by gender.

4.                Provincial statistics only: The statistics made available by COPAC are for provinces only.  They give no idea of the incidence of high and low attendance per district or ward [meetings were arranged on a meeting per ward basis].  ZZZICOMP [the network set up by Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Zimbabwe Peace Project and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to monitor the constitution-making process] have attempted to remedy this shortcoming in their reports, as have Crisis Coalition and Sokwanele.  ZZZICOMP’s latest report [for 8th to 22nd August] refers to some meetings in Matabeleland attended by only approximately 20 people and contrasts that with meetings attended by very large numbers in Manicaland and Mashonaland [e.g., 1400 and 759].  [Reports available from zzzicomp@gmail.com; www.crisiszimbabwe.org; www.sokwanele.com]

5.                High attendance at some meetings may make it difficult for all who wish to do so to contribute; it suggests that more meetings should have been scheduled for the areas concerned.  There have also been reports of busloads arriving from areas outside the ward where a meeting is held.

6.                Low attendance at some meetings could well be the result of poor arrangements and poor communication. There is a suspicion in some areas that this was deliberate marginalisation.  COPAC should think of revisiting these areas after giving proper prior notice.

ZZZICOMP’s reports provide a fuller picture of what has actually been happening at a wide sample of meetings.  Examples are listed of other aspects of the outreach not captured by the COPAC statistics, such as: cancellation/disruption of meetings; bussing in of non-residents; obvious coaching of participants by political parties; intimidation and harassment; monopolisation of meetings by representatives of one political party, etc.  One report states Close analysis of provincial comments by ZZZICOMP suggest there is high risk that most of the decisions that are passed as “unanimously agreed” may be accounted by fear of retribution after the meetings.”

 

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied

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