HRD’s
Alert
19 April 2011
Hwange
Magistrate Peter Tomupei Madiba on
Tuesday 19 April 2011 granted bail to
Catholic
Priest Father Marko Mabutho Mkandla
and Hon.
Moses Mzila-Ndlovu,
the co-Minister of the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation and Integration
after they spend six and five nights in detention respectively for allegedly
violating the country’s obnoxious security laws.
Magistrate Madiba ordered Father Mkandla and Hon.
Mzila-Ndlovu to pay bail amounting to $500 and to surrender their passports with
the clerk of court. Father Mkandla and Hon. Mzila-Ndlovu were also ordered not
to interfere with State witnesses.
The lawyers, Lizwe
Jamela,
Nosimilo Chanayiwa of Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) Nikiwe
Ncube of
Webb, Low and Barry Legal Practitioners and Gugulethu
Simango of Dube and Associates, who
are all members of ZLHR
raised complaints in court against the police for denying
Father Mkandla food since his detention at Tsholotsho Police Station. Mkandla’s
lawyers told Magistrate Madiba that the police denied their client food and only
gave him water during his period in detention.
The lawyers also complained about the police behaviour
in denying them access to their clients and refusing to disclose the details
pertaining to his detention as they moved him from one police station to
another.
Lawyers also protested against the police who brought their clients
while in leg
irons. Police also deployed their
heavily armed anti riot unit at court.
Earlier
on police in Hwange on Tuesday 19 April 2011 blocked Jamela, Chanayiwa and Ncube
from reaching Hwange Magistrates in Matabeleland North province to represent
Mzila-Ndlovu
and Father Mkandla, who
were set to appear in court in the morning.
The
police blocked the lawyers Jamela, Chanayiwa and Ncube
from
reaching Hwange Magistrates Court after they surprising set up a road block as
lawyers entered into the coal mining town to attend court proceedings for Father
Mkandla and Mzila Ndlovu, who
have been languishing in police detention since their arrest last
week.
It appears that the police roadblock had been mounted specifically to
target the lawyers for yet unknown reasons.
Eight
MDC supporters who were on their way to Hwange Magistrates Court were also
detained with the lawyers from 10:30 am to around 17:00 hours.
When
stopped at the road block, one police officer quickly jumped into the lawyers’
vehicle and ordered them to drive towards Hwange Police Station. The police
interrogated the lawyers about the registration of their vehicle before they
were released and managed to represent their clients.
Father Mkandla and Bulilima West Member of Parliament Hon. Mzila Ndlovu
were arrested on Wednesday 13 April 2011 and Friday 15 April 2011 respectively
and charged with contravening the country’s tough security laws such as the
Public Order and Security Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act
for allegedly convening a healing service at Silwane Primary School in Lupane,
Matabeleland North, without notifying the police.
ENDS
HRD’s
Alert
19 April 2011
Police
in Hwange on Tuesday 19 April 2011 blocked lawyers who were travelling to Hwange
Magistrates Court in Matabeleland North province to represent the co-Minister
of the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation and Integration
Hon.
Moses Mzila-Ndlovu and Catholic
Priest Father Marko Mabutho Mkandla,
who
were set to appear in court this morning.
The
police blocked the lawyers Lizwe
Jamela, Nosimilo Chanayiwa of
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Nikiwe
Ncube of
Webb, Low and Barry Legal Practitioners, who is also a member of ZLHR
from
reaching Hwange Magistrates Court after they surprising set up a road block as
lawyers entered into the coal mining town to attend court proceedings for Father
Mkandla and Mzila Ndlovu, who
have been languishing in police detention since their arrest last week.
It
appears that the police roadblock had been mounted specifically to target the
lawyers for yet unknown reasons.
When
stopped at the road block, one police officer quickly jumped into the lawyers’
vehicle and ordered them to drive towards Hwange Police Station. The police are
currently interrogating the lawyers and ZLHR fears that this could delay or fail
them to represent their clients, who are supposed to appear in court this
morning.
Father Mkandla and Bulilima West Member of Parliament Hon. Mzila Ndlovu
were arrested on Wednesday 13 April 2011 and Friday 15 April 2011 respectively
and charged with contravening the country’s tough security laws such as the
Public Order and Security Act and the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act
for allegedly convening a healing service at Silwane Primary School in Lupane,
Matabeleland North, without notifying the police.
ENDS
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
19 April 2011
Delving into ZANU PF’s dark secrets of the past
led to the arrest of
National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration
Minister, Moses
Mzila-Ndlovu, sources told SW Radio Africa on
Tuesday.
Mzila-Ndlovu was arrested last week Friday after police accused
him of
addressing an ‘illegal’ memorial service for Gukurahundi victims and
survivors, at a Roman Catholic Church Mass in Lupane on 13th
April.
But MDC-N President Welshman Ncube told Newsday that the Bulilima
West MP is
being persecuted for revealing that in 1984 the late CIO deputy
Director
General, Mernard Muzariri, shot and killed Njini Ntuta, a former PF
ZAPU MP
and Central Committee member. Mzila-Ndlovu is believed to have also
talked
about this in Lupane last week, saying that Ntutha was shot at
point-blank
range at his farm along the Victoria Falls Road, at the height
of the
Gukurahundi massacres.
Ntuta was shot dead in the Nyathi area
of Matebeleland North in November
1984. Three days before his death, Ntuta
openly accused ZANU PF of being
behind the killing of six foreign tourists
who had been kidnapped along the
Victoria Falls road.
In mid 1982 it
was reported that six tourists had been kidnapped and troops
were sent into
Matabeleland to find them. But their bodies were later found.
The government
of then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe blamed the deaths of the
tourists on
ZAPU, who were accused of sponsoring dissident activity in the
area at the
time.
So when Ntuta, credited for being among the pioneers of free speech
in
Parliament, accused ZANU PF of murdering the foreign tourists while
blaming
it on ZAPU, he sealed his fate. Three days after his speech in the
House of
Assembly the elderly Ntuta was chased from his homestead at his
farm and
executed.
‘He was an old man who couldn’t outrun his
assailants. He was first tortured
and was eventually shot dead at close
range. This is what Mzila-Ndlovu told
people in Lupane last week and I hear
it has left people in ZANU PF
indignant,’ a senior former ZAPU official
said.
He added; ‘The state media blamed dissidents for his death but
everyone
knows that dissidents did not target ZAPU leaders. In fact
Mzila-Ndlovu is
believed to have directly said Muzariri shot Ntutha in cold
blood.
Muzariri was never included on the EU or US targeted sanctions
list,
despite being well known for masterminding violence and targeting the
MDC.
http://www.voanews.com
Indigenization
Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told South Africa's Sunday Times
that the value
of the 51 percent stake in firms to be taken by the state for
indigenous
Zimbabweans will reflect the mineral resources
Gibbs Dube | Washington
18 April 2011
Economic commentator Masimba Kuchera said the attempt
by Mr. Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party to seize foreign-owned mining firms 31 years
after
independence is not workable
Zimbabwean Indigenization Minister
Saviour Kasukuwere has raised the ante in
black empowerment, saying Harare
will seize control of foreign-owned mining
companies without compensation
because all minerals belong to native people.
Speaking on the sidelines
of a Johannesburg business meeting, Kasukuwere
told the South African Sunday
Times that the 51 percent stake in such
enterprises to be acquired by the
state in the name of indigenous or black
Zimbabweans will be determined in
an assessment of the net value of mineral
resources for each mining
operation.
He said in most cases the indigenization process will be
carried out the way
land reform was, through the expropriation of property
in the name of black
Zimbabwean.
President Robert Mugabe signaled
Friday that there is no going back on
indigenization, which has rattled
international investors. But Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the
power-sharing government will not
nationalize foreign-owned
enterprises.
Economic commentator Masimba Kuchera said the attempt by Mr.
Mugabe's
ZANU-PF party to seize mining firms 31 years after independence is
not
workable.
"We have a government arm that is trying to disarm
foreign companies through
dubious means and this is not going well with the
other partners," Kuchera
said.
http://www.businessday.co.za/
Zimbabwean Prime Minister condemns
President Robert Mugabe’s plans to
nationalise foreign-owned firms.
CRIS
CHINAKA
Published: 2011/04/19 06:47:46 AM
ZIMBABWEAN Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday denounced President
Robert Mugabe’s plans to
nationalise foreign-owned firms as "looting and
plunder" by a greedy
elite.
In a statement for Zimbabwe’s 31st independence anniversary, Mr
Tsvangirai
also dismissed as "empty rhetoric" a drive by Mugabe’s Zanu (PF)
party to
force foreign companies to transfer majority shareholdings to black
Zimbabweans.
Mr Mugabe’s seizures of white- owned farms about a
decade ago, under the
banner of correcting colonial injustices, had ruined
the economy and
benefitted "avaricious politicians", Mr Tsvangirai
said.
"Now, 30 years after independence, we are being told by multi-
millionaires
and multiple farm owners that indigenisation will set us free,"
he said. "By
this, they are not referring to broad-based empowerment of the
ordinary man
and woman, but the looting and plunder of national resources by
a small,
parasitic elite."
Mr Mugabe signed into law the
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act in
2008, which forces
foreign-owned companies worth more than $500000 to
achieve at least 51%
black ownership within five years.
Mr Mugabe defended the policy later in
the day at an independence rally also
attended by Mr Tsvangirai. He said a
government notice giving foreign mining
companies until May 9 to submit
their plans on the share transfer was part
of a broad economic empowerment
programme.
Mr Mugabe also denounced political violence and avoided his
usual attacks on
Mr Tsvangirai in a seemingly reconciliatory
speech.
Zimbabwe, he said , had stabilised politically after a
power-sharing
government brokered by regional leaders was formed in 2009
.
Although he called for peaceful political co-existence, he made no
direct
reference to a spate of clashes between his supporters and backers of
Mr
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) or the arrest of
opposition officials.
Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, a minister from a small MDC
faction led by Industry and
Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube, was detained
at the weekend on charges of
addressing an illegal meeting and using hate
speech. Last month nearly 50
Zimbabweans were arrested and beaten for
attending an address on the
uprising in North Africa. Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/
By CELIA W.
DUGGER
Published: April 18, 2011
HARARE, Zimbabwe — More than a
quarter of President Robert Mugabe’s
opponents in Parliament have been
arrested since agreeing to join the
government in a shaky power-sharing
arrangement, part of an intensifying
campaign of harassment intended to
drive them out of office, officials from
both sides say.
Ever since
the two wings of the Movement for Democratic Change, the party
founded to
fight Mr. Mugabe’s rule, accepted a power-sharing arrangement
with the
government in 2008, about 30 of their 109 members of Parliament
have been
arrested at one point or another, with some of them being taken
into court
shackled in leg irons, according to human rights lawyers and the
M.D.C.
“They’re trying to force us out, and they’re not sophisticated
enough to
hide it,” Elton Mangoma, a cabinet member and M.D.C. leader who
helped
negotiate the troubled power-sharing deal, said between two recent
stints in
jail.
The latest arrest of an opponent came on Friday,
despite warnings from
Zimbabwe’s neighbors that such detentions must stop.
The police accused
Moses Mzila Ndlovu, co-minister for national healing, of
attending a meeting
held without their authorization. It was a memorial
prayer service for the
thousands of civilians from the Ndebele minority
slain in the early years of
Mr. Mugabe’s 31-year rule.
As Mr. Mugabe,
87, seeks another term, his political anxieties are showing,
and not just in
the arrests of his opponents. He is also deeply worried
about disloyalty in
his own party, ZANU-PF, and leaks from insiders about
his health and his
party’s violent political strategy for the elections it
is demanding
sometime this year.
At a funeral last Thursday for a leader of his vast
spy service, Mr. Mugabe
complained about party members who “run to our
enemies to tell them the
details of our meetings.” And he warned these
“sellouts” that intelligence
agents were watching them.
There are now
two aggressive new newspapers in Zimbabwe challenging the
state’s version of
reality, and as an ill-concealed battle rages in Mr.
Mugabe’s own party to
succeed him, some ZANU-PF officials are maneuvering to
advance their own
interests.
“Now that he’s clearly old, the different factions are moving
in,” said Dewa
Mavhinga, regional coordinator for the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition, an
alliance of more than 300 civic groups. “It’s clear there has
to be thinking
post-Mugabe, most so within his own party.”
The
president’s allies are striking out at those who challenge him. Even a
sardonic sense of humor can be a criminal offense if the punch lines zing
Mr. Mugabe, who controls the police, prosecutors and prisons.
Douglas
Mwonzora, an M.D.C. leader who lectures on Roman law at the
University of
Zimbabwe, recently stood in court, gazing at the omnipresent
portrait of Mr.
Mugabe. Mr. Mwonzora was handcuffed, shackled and clothed in
prison-issue
khaki short pants (no underwear allowed), facing a charge,
which he denied,
of inciting public violence. The magistrate had not arrived
yet, so Mr.
Mwonzora said he respectfully addressed the portrait.
“How are you,
father?” he asked Mr. Mugabe, widely rumored to have prostate
cancer. “How
is your health?”
People in the courtroom burst out laughing — but on
April 8 the police
charged Mr. Mwonzora with insulting the president, an
offense punishable by
up to a year in prison.
Mr. Mwonzora, who heads
Parliament’s constitution-making committee for the
M.D.C., had already been
jailed almost four weeks in February and March
before being released on $50
bail. He had slept for days on the concrete
floor of a cell, next to a
toilet. For weeks, he shared another cell with
inmates accused of rape and
murder — a cell earlier inhabited by an M.D.C.
senator.
“ ‘That’s
where we put M.D.C. M.P.’s,’ ” Mr. Mwonzora said prison guards
told
him.
The menacing buildup to the voting seems like a replay of the
violent,
rigged elections that have plagued Zimbabwe over the past decade.
But calls
by ZANU-PF officials for the arrest of the M.D.C.’s leader, Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, seem to have galvanized South Africa’s
president, Jacob
Zuma — the regional mediator in Zimbabwe’s political crisis
— to demand a
halt to political arrests and violence.
The efforts to
goad Mr. Tsvangirai are many. The police have banned his
rallies and
arrested his drivers for using blue beacon lights without
authorization. The
state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper published rumors
that Mr. Tsvangirai,
a widower, was sleeping around, accompanied by a
photograph of him being
hugged by someone the paper described as “that
unidentified white
woman.”
But Mr. Tsvangirai, who has survived arrests, a police beating,
assassination attempts and a treason trial over the past decade, insists
that he will not quit the government, no matter the
provocation.
“They want to push you out so they can run the elections
under their own
conditions,” he said.
Already, ZANU-PF is cranking up
the electoral machinery it used to decimate
the M.D.C. and drive Mr.
Tsvangirai out of the 2008 presidential runoff,
according to officials in
ZANU-PF and the security services, as well as
human rights
groups.
“That we can’t win a fair election is not a secret,” said a
senior ZANU-PF
official.
Speaking anonymously to discuss ZANU-PF’s
confidential election strategy,
the official confirmed that the party was
engineering the arrests of M.D.C.
lawmakers in hopes of driving them out of
the government.
Further confirmation came from a senior army officer
critical of the
violence. He said Mr. Mugabe’s senior lieutenants decided
months ago to
deploy army officers, on paid leave, to manage the ZANU-PF
youth militia and
war veterans who assault and harass M.D.C. supporters in
rural areas.
“What was curious is that most of the people who were
appointed are the ones
who ran the violent campaign in 2008,” the officer
said.
Mr. Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, rejected the claim, saying
senior
military leaders like Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena of the Zimbabwe
Air
Force had resigned their positions to help run the election effort as a
patriotic duty, not to orchestrate violence.
“The time has come to
save the revolution again,” Mr. Charamba said.
Volunteers who track cases
of intimidation and assault for the Zimbabwe
Peace Project, a nonprofit
group, have recently spotted army deployments in
rural areas of many
provinces, said the group’s leader, Jestina Mukoko.
“We seem to be
revving up for an election,” she said.
Ms. Mukoko was abducted by
intelligence agents on Dec. 3, 2008, after her
organization documented the
violence that stained that year’s election
campaign. Two men took turns
beating the soles of her feet with truncheons,
she said.
Hilton
Chironga, a ward-level M.D.C. organizer, is also continuing his
political
work, despite past attacks. Mr. Chironga recalled the morning of
June 20,
2008, when a ZANU-PF mob surrounded the yard of his family’s
homestead, shot
him in the arm and leg and killed his brother Gibbs, a newly
elected M.D.C.
ward councilor.
An affidavit Mr. Chironga signed at the time listed 61
people he recognized
in the mob, including two ZANU-PF members of
Parliament. Not one has ever
been arrested.
“We are still praying
that sooner or later, we’ll get justice,” he said.
http://www.radiovop.com
19/04/2011 13:04:00
Harare, April 19, 2011 -
The Zimbabwean government, through Vice President
Joice Mujuru, has
apologised to South African President Jacob Zuma for its
recent attacks on
the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
recently.
Two weeks
ago ZANU (PF) through its controversial prodigal son, Professor
Jonathan
Moyo, attacked Zuma for announcing during a SADC Troika meeting
held last
month in Livingstone Zambia that the regional bloc was going to
establish an
election road map for Zimbabwe.
President Zuma is the SADC facilitator to
Zimbabwe’s Global Political
Agreement, which formed the country’s coalition
government.
Sources within the Foreign Affairs Ministry told Radio VOP
that Vice
President Mujuru, last week visited the South African Embassy and
apologised.
“VP Mujuru after reprimanding Professor Jonathan Moyo
personally met South
African diplomats at their Zimbabwean embassy and tried
to extinguish the
fire. At the meeting she explained that Moyo’s utterances
were not Zanu (PF)’s
position, but his (Moyo) opinion, “the source
said.
Professor Johnathan Moyo had written in state-run Sunday Mail
newspaper
blasting Zuma's proposed roadmap as a regime change
tool.
In a full page hard-hitting opinion piece, Professor Moyo suggested
Zuma
wanted to use the roadmap to overthrow Zimbabwe’s embattled President
Robert
Mugabe in the same way the South African leader voted for last
month’s UN
resolution that imposed a no-fly zone over Libya.
Since
then President Mugabe has been trying to re-build relations with Zuma
by
praising SADC for its facilitation initiative to the implementation of
the
GPA.
At its conference in December last year, President Mugabe’s Zanu
(PF) party
resolved not to move any step further, saying sanctions had to be
removed
first.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
19 April
2011
A mass public rally that will take place in Soweto on Wednesday is
set to
take the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to task, by
demanding
peace and democracy in the entire region.
The rally will
see civil society groups from Zimbabwe and Swaziland come
together with
social movements in South Africa, to put pressure on SADC
leaders to respect
the will of the people in the region. The demonstration
will also serve as a
warning to SADC leaders that civil uprisings, seen in
North Africa and the
Middle East recently, could also break out in Southern
Africa, if they do
not step in and ensure democracy for all.
The rally comes almost a week
after a planned three day protest against the
King Mswati regime in
Swaziland was suspended, after a heavy security
clampdown resulted in
hundreds of arrests. The country’s security forces
were deployed in key
areas of the Manzini urban centre, to stamp out any
sign of public unrest.
Labour union leaders who led the protest action,
eventually called the
protests off to restrategise a way forward.
The rally meanwhile also
comes as the situation in Zimbabwe continues to
deteriorate, with ongoing
intimidation of MDC supporters, arrests of MDC
members and a crackdown on
any form of public protest.
Gabriel Shumba, the Executive Director of the
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, told SW
Radio Africa’s Diaspora Diaries program that
Zimbabwe and Swaziland are
‘twinned’ in their equal lack of democracy. He
explained that the rally on
Wednesday will demand that SADC urgently takes
step to show its commitment
to good governance, the rule of law and respect
for human rights.
“SADC needs to demonstrate its commitments to democracy
for the entire
region,” Shumba said.
He added: “If SADC does not step
in and intervene in the crises in Zimbabwe
and in Swaziland, then they must
know the protests like we’ve already seen
in North Africa, will happen
here.”
The rally will take place on Wednesday at Thokoza Park in
Rockville, Soweto,
from 11am to 3pm.
http://www.radiovop.com/
19/04/2011
16:39:00
JOHANNESBURG, April 19, 2011- More than 500 Zimbabwean
exiles from
Matebeleland province took part in a controversial march for
freedom
organised by the militant and secessionist Mthwakazi Liberation
Front (MLF)
whose campaigns for a separate state have led to the arrest of
the
movement's senior leaders in Bulawayo.
The march which was
closely monitored by police attracted scores of South
Africans sympathetic
to the plight of the people of Matebeleland. During the
march a Zimbabwean
flag was burnt to ashes by the protesters saying it was a
symbol of
oppression and discrimination against ethnic groups in
Matabeleland
province.
“ Our march was very successful and attracted many South
Africans who are
sympathetic to our cause, ” said MLF spokesman Sabelo
Mavikinduku Ngwenya, a
lawyer by profession.The toyi-toying protesters
singing struggle songs
brought business to a standstill along Sauer and Bree
Streets.
The organisers of the march also sent a delegation to the
Zimbabwe Embassy
in Pretoria to deliver the group,s document outlining how
the state of
Mthwakazi would be created and which districts in Zimbabwe
would be part of
that country.The delegation has been instructed to deliver
the document
directly to Ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko, a struggle hero and
Mugabe
loyalist.Mphoko also comes from Matabeleland province but has openly
opposed
those campaigning for secession.
Officials at the embassy in
Pretoria said they did not receive any document
from MLF.President Robert
Mugabe is on record as saying Zimbabwe will never
be divided into two ethnic
based states.But secessionists in Matabeleland
say the people of the region
have suffered enough marginalisation and
discrimination under Zimbabwe,s
unitary system.MLF leaders who include Paul
Siwela, John Gazi and Charles
Thomas are currently facing charges related to
treason.If they go for trial
and are convicted, they could face death
sentence.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
19
April 2011
A controversial review of the role and functions of the
regional human
rights Tribunal has defended the court’s findings in the
legal battle
against land seizures in Zimbabwe.
The Tribunal of the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) ruled in
2008 that Robert
Mugabe’s land grab campaign was unlawful, and ordered the
government to
protect farmers from future attack. The landmark case was
brought to the
court by 79 Zimbabwean commercial farmers, who were all
victims of the
campaign that has all but destroyed the country’s
agricultural
sector.
But Mugabe’s regime has repeatedly refused to honour the
Tribunal’s rulings,
despite being a signatory to the Treaty that formed the
SADC leadership
bloc. Instead, the regime has undermined the Tribunal,
saying it has no
jurisdiction in Zimbabwe and its rulings are ‘null and
void’. The Zim
government also argued that the Tribunal was never legally
constituted,
despite being part of the proceedings that formed the court,
and even
nominating one of its own judges for appointment to the
court.
For farmers the Zim government’s refusal to abide by the rulings
of the
regional court has meant ongoing harassment by land invaders and many
more
farmers have been forced off their properties since 2008. So, in a
desperate
bid to have the Tribunal legally recognised in Zimbabwe, farmers
last year
took their appeal before SADC leaders at a heads of state Summit
in Namibia.
But, instead of taking action against the Zim government for its
contempt of
the Tribunal, SADC leaders decided to review the court,
effectively
suspending it.
Observers said this was a brazen show of
allegiance to Mugabe, who SADC has
allowed to hold onto power in Zimbabwe by
drafting the terms of the unity
government. The move also prompted numerous
warnings that SADC was setting a
dangerous precedent that could leave SADC
residents with no legal recourse
against their governments.
But the
review has since been concluded and has defended the Tribunal’s
findings. It
found that SADC law should be supreme over domestic laws and
constitutions
and concludes that all decisions made by the court should be
binding and
enforceable within all member states. It states that the SADC
Tribunal has
the legal authority to deal with individual human rights
petitions, that its
rulings should be binding over member states and that
the SADC ruling on the
land grab issue “cannot be faulted”
The report and its findings will only
be presented to the SADC Heads of
State at their next session later this
year, who will then decide the
ultimate future of the court.
Nicole
Fritz from the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) told SW
Radio
Africa on Tuesday that the findings of the review are welcome, but
added the
battle is not over yet. She expressed hope that SADC leaders will
fully
reinstate the workings of the Tribunal, explaining that any weakening
of its
mandate is a serious threat to the region.
“Alarmingly, there is a
possibility that individual access to the court will
be scrapped and that
only interstate disputes will be entertained,” Fritz
said. “A decision along
these lines would deal a fatal blow to the rule of
law in the region. It
puts human rights in jeopardy, as well as future trade
and investment, and
long- term economic growth.”
Fritz added that although the review does
not recommend this, it will be up
to SADC leaders to determine the fate of
the court, and they could be swayed
by “political push back.” But she said
it would be “difficult for them to
make this decision, because there is no
legal road they can take.”
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer
Tuesday, 19 April
2011 11:39
HARARE - In a shocking revelation of how Zanu PF leaders
are abusing their
positions, the resident minister for Mashonaland Central
Martin Dinha bought
a Bindura council house three years ago for a paltry 48
Zimbabwe cents.
The contentious purchase – described by one analyst
as “one of the clearest
and typical examples of the corruption and executive
excesses of the past 31
years” – has prompted an outraged Elected
Councillors Association of
Zimbabwe (ECAZ) to institute a wide-ranging
investigation into the disposal
of state-owned properties over the past 11
years.
“The ECAZ Anti-corruption unit will be working flat out to unearth
all
corruption that has gone unchecked since 2000 and assures the people of
Zimbabwe that they will get to the bottom of all thefts of council
properties,” it said yesterday.
Dinha, one of President Robert
Mugabe’s most zealous followers, is one of
many senior Zanu PF officials who
have benefitted from these kinds of
controversial purchases.
What
makes Dinha’s purchase of the 48c house, on a stand measuring 3025
square
metres, even more gobsmacking is that it happened during the time of
quintillions and quadrillions – at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis,
marked by ridiculously high inflation. At that time, 48 Zimbabwe cents
could not even buy sweets or even a single tooth pick.
The purchase
was sanctioned by the minister of local government, Ignatius
Chombo, who
himself has been under pressure from local authorities who are
investigating
him for his ownership of more than 100 stands and houses
throughout the
country – many of them acquired in different councils under
controversial
circumstances.
Dinha’s contested purchase of the house prompted an
investigation by ousted
Bindura mayor Tinashe Madamombe, who was fired by
Chombo as soon as he
started carrying out the probe and gathering
evidence.
One of the reasons given for Madamombe’s firing was that he
awarded council
employees bonuses at a time that the Bindura municipality
did not have the
resources, a charge that Madamonde said was not just
flimsy, but also
without any basis.
Dinha openly admitted that he
bought the house in question for 48 Zimbabwe
cents when the Daily News
contacted him at the weekend.
He said that the shocking purchase was part
of his exit package which every
executive mayor had benefited from. He added
that he was not the only one
who bought houses for “peanuts” at the time,
but could not give the names of
others involved.
“I bought that house
for that price because it was a negotiated price and it
is not Dinha alone
who benefited from the scheme. Every council employee
then who was staying
in a council house was given an opportunity to buy a
house,” Dinha
said.
Chombo’s involvement in the sale of the house to Dinha for ZW$48
cents is
contained in the deed of transfer, which the Daily News has in its
possession.
The deed of transfer partly reads:“…Japhet Kabanga as the
Town clerk of
Bindura Municipality under the instruction from the minister
of local
government, public works and urban development, (Chombo) dated 27
February
2008 and the said appearer (Dinha) that the mentioned property has
been duly
sold to him at the half price with consent from the minister of
urban
development dated 27 February 2008 and that he in his capacity as
attorney
aforesaid hereby transfer to Martin Tafara Dinha.”
Dinha is
also alleged to have bought other properties and stands in the same
way,
although this could not be established at the time of going to
Press.
Dinha bought the council house in June 2008, just a few days
before the
swearing-in of new MDC councillors who were elected in March
2008. The same
scenario prevailed in Harare where top Zanu PF officials
grabbed prime land
in 2008, just before the coming in of MDC councillors –
suggesting a
systematic and elaborate looting scheme, analysts
say.
MDC councillors have always accused Zanu PF officials of going on a
looting
spree across the country in 2008, soon after it dawned on them that
Mugabe’s
party had lost in almost every local authority election throughout
the
country.
Madamombe insisted in an interview with the Daily News
that he was fired by
the minister after he instituted investigations over
council properties
involving Dinha.
“The problem started when I
instituted an audit of council properties after
we discovered that Dinha had
taken many properties from the council,
including the house which was sold
to him at that low price, and vehicles
which were said to be exit packages,”
he said.
“It went on to the extent that he started working with some
councillors to
undermine my authority and these councillors became so
corrupt such that on
average, each one of them has at least five
stands.
“To show that Chombo was working with them, he even sided with
them at one
of the meetings we held at his office, saying they could have as
many stands
as they wanted,” Madamombe said.
The six councillors
involved have since been fired by the MDC in their bid
to root out
corruption in local authorities, but remain councillors at the
behest of
Chombo. The six councillors are said to have petitioned the
minister to
fire Madamombe.
He said Chombo’s actions were promoting corruption in
councils.
“In 2008 they fired Mugogo who was refusing to give Dinha the
house and now
the labour court has awarded him US$1million as compensation
and this is
going to be funded by the residents who are battling to get good
service
delivery from the council,” he said.
Bindura residents have
since declared that they will stop paying rates until
Madamombe is
reinstated as the mayor. They further say that the continued
interference
by Chombo and Dinha in the affairs of the local authority has
affected
service delivery.
Madamombe is not the only councillor to be fired for
investigating theft of
council properties in the 2008 period.
In
Harare, councillors Warship Dumba and Casper Takura were fired by Chombo
after leading an investigation which implicated Chombo and Phillip Chiyangwa
in alleged illegal acquisitions of prime land in Harare. Chombo is in the
process of returning one of the pieces of land.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
19 April
2011
Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander, General Constantine Chiwenga is
back in
the country after spending a few days in China reportedly for a
medical
check-up.
The four-star General attended the Independence Day
celebrations at the
National Sports Stadium in Harare. He accompanied Robert
Mugabe when he
inspected a guard of honour.
Defence Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa last week confirmed to NewsDay that the
army chief had gone to
China for medical attention.
“Yes, I can confirm that Chiwenga went to
China to seek medical treatment,”
said Mnangagwa. He will be coming back
into the country Friday. What I know
is that he had gone for medical
checkups; we all go for medical checkups.
Don’t you go for routine medical
checkups yourself?” Mnangagwa asked the
Newsday reporter.
During the
heroes’ celebrations on Monday, the master of ceremonies Webster
Shamu went
on the public address system to inform the audience of Chiwenga’s
presence
in the stadium.
’We can see that the Commander of the ZDF is here and is
very fit. Are those
newspapers that claimed he was ill not ashamed now?"
Shamu said.
Chiwenga reportedly scoffed at the reports he was sick,
saying he remains
fit and well.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
by Irene Madongo
19
April 2011
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says it is outraged to learn that
Mutare City
Council plans to tear down its billboard calling for people to
encourage
their Senators to amend the Public Order Security Act
(POSA).
Crisis explained that the billboard has a message with the words:
“Push your
Senator to act now” and “Abasha POSA – POSA kills
freedom.”
On Tuesday Nixon Nyikadzino, Senior Programs Officer at Crisis
said: “The
president’s office in Mutare has instructed the Mutare City
Council to pull
down a billboard that seeks to push Senators to support
amendments to the
Act in the upper House.”
Nyikadzino said when he
heard that the Council had sent workers to tear it
down, he informed
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), who said they
would contact the
Mutare City Council about the matter.
“We are all shocked by this and as
we speak, they are already pulling it
down. I have already spoken to ZLHR
who are verifying what is taking place
in Mutare. The Billboard is along
Dangamvura road. You can maybe send
someone to go and verify,” Nyikadzino
said on Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s not only a blow to the advocacy of
freedom of expression, freedom of
assembly, here in Zimbabwe. It also
affects the ordinary person because we
are trying to allow the ordinary
person to play a critical role,” Nyikadzino
explained.
The highly
unpopular POSA bill is used as a tool by the partisan police to
arrest and
detain political activists and civilians, mainly by barring them
from
holding meetings. However, under the Global Party Agreement leaders
agreed
it would be amended, but this has yet to happen.
Under the proposed
changes, political parties will be able to hold meetings
in venues that are
not open to the public and in indoor public places, such
as public halls.
Mutare Central MP Gonese successfully steered the POSA
Amendment Bill in the
lower House of Assembly last December. It is now to be
debated in the Upper
House.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
19 April
2011
On Monday we reported how 82 year old headman Rwisai Nyakauru (who
was
arrested and tortured by ZANU PF youth militia and war vets) died from
his
injuries on Saturday. The militants targeted him because he had attended
an
MDC-T rally addressed by Nyanga North MP Douglas Mwonzora.
Now SW
Radio Africa understands the three ZANU PF thugs who abducted and
tortured
him are taunting villagers in Nyanga about his death.
On the 14th
February Wilfred Pokoto, Tawonga Mutsiwawo and Kilborn
Masunungure were part
of a group of ZANU PF militants who abducted Headman
Nyakauru from his home,
took him to the Taziwa Hotel and brutally assaulted
in one of the rooms.
They kicked him all over the body, especially the chest
area.
During
the assaults Pokoto used a ‘safety’ shoe with an iron tip inside the
front
end. The assault was so serious that when they finally handed him over
to
the police for arrest he collapsed and started vomiting blood. Nyakauru
was
to spend 25 days in custody alongside Mwonzora and 23 other
villagers.
“The assailants are roaming free in the villages of Nyakomba.
They are
teasing people about the death of the old man as we speak and they
don’t
face justice,” Mwonzora told us in an interview.
The Nyanga North
legislator paid tribute to the headman for being resolute
throughout his
ordeal. He said that while still in custody Nyakauru vowed
that Mugabe’s
regime would not last forever. On his release the MDC-T set up
a press
conference, which Nyakauru insisted he would conduct on his own and
it was
during this that he narrated what the ZANU PF militants had done to
him.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa, Kerry Kay, the MDC-T Secretary for
Welfare,
said she was horrified that the 82 year old Nyakauru and another
elderly
person, 75 year old grandmother Evangelist Machirita, had been held
in
custody over trumped-up charges of public violence. She paid a visit to
Nyanga where she saw Nyakauru, who looked frail and kept saying, ‘I don’t
know what I’m doing here?”
Commenting on the challenges the party was
facing in helping victims of
violence and torture Kay said they had not been
able to help in the way they
wanted to because of financial and logistical
challenges. Kay said from 2008
about 20 000 people had gone through medical
facilities for treatment, after
being brutalized by ZANU PF militants. They
also recorded ‘just under 300
verified deaths’ of MDC activists.
In
addition to those beaten and killed Kay said they had in their database
‘over 3,000 homes destroyed at the time,’ and they have not been able to
help these people fully. She said ZANU PF is responsible for this suffering
and should be compensating the victims of their violence
campaigns.
Meanwhile Kay said a website set up by exiled MDC-T Treasurer
General, Roy
Bennett, (FreeZimbabwe.com) was also an attempt to help raise
money to
assist victims of violence in Zimbabwe.
http://www.africanmanager.com
Tuesday,
19 April 2011
PANA
Air
Zimbabwe said Tuesday it would retire its entire fleet of Boeing 737-200
aircraft and replace them with new planes.
The state-owned carrier
has three Boeing 737-200 planes, which it says are
now too old and obsolete
to operate.
In a statement, the airline said it would acquire new
aircraft and lease
more modern ones as part of an ambitious fleet renewal
planned.
Last week, Air Zimbabwe leased a Boeing 737-500 plane from Air
Zambezi of
Zambia to operate on domestic and regional routes.
"This
(the lease) is part of a fleet replacement programme which will see
the
gradual phasing out of the entire B737-200 fleet the airline has been
operating," Innocent Mavhunga, the airline's chief executive,
said.
The carrier is presently paralysed by a month-old strike by pilots
and cabin
crew over unpaid salaries and allowances amounting to US$12
million
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
NCA PREE RELEASE: 19 April
2011
NCA pleads with SADC over violence
By Blessing
Vava
Johannesburg- Zimbabwe’s leading civic group, the National
Constitutional
Assembly (NCA) warned SADC leaders to act decisively in
averting sporadic
violence in the country that it blamed on ZANU PF.
Speaking at a press
conference held at COSATU House yesterday 18 April 2011
in Johannesburg,
bemoaning Zimbabwe’s failed independence, NCA regional
co-coordinator
Munjodzi Mutandiri said SADC needed to be more proactive in
saving human
life.
“Leaders of SADC should take the aspirations
of the majority of people
seriously,” said Mutandiri referring to protecting
electoral decisions that
Zimbabweans made in 2008 March polls. Zimbabwe’s
autocratic leader, Robert
Mugabe, is believed to have been defeated in the
2008 March polls.
The NCA also warned those perpetrating violence
against women and children
saying it was preparing a dossier and would hand
it to those in capacity to
act and bring justice. The civic movement
launched its campaign against
violence on women last December and has
dedicated 2011 to raising awareness
on this issue.
Mutandiri further
reiterated that the reported elections might see areas of
interest such as
Chidzwa-Marange diamond fields attracting violence due to
their economic
significance. Some reports already indicate that ZANU PF
intends using the
income from alluvial deposits for its campaign in the
forthcoming
elections.
Addressing the media at the same occasion, the Crisis
Coalition’s Regional
Coordinator Dewa Mavhinga said Zimbabwe’s civic groups
were monitoring all
the violations of the Global Political Agreement and
will present its
findings to the SADC mediation and troika team ahead of the
SADC special
summit on Zimbabwe.
“We are closely monitoring
Zimbabwe’s political leadership, particularly
those in ZANU PF who, de
facto, wiled significantly more political power, to
ensure that they fully
implement SADC troika resolutions, including
immediately ending to all forms
of violence and intimidation,” read part of
the statement by the
civics.
The NCA together with Zimbabwe Exiles Forum and Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition
called for reforms in security sector, media and to
undertake a genuine
people driven democratic elections. Gabriel Shumba, the
Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum leader said it was a tragedy that as Zimbabwe
celebrate its 31st
birthday the country was still heavily dependent on
economic handouts.
--
National Constitutional Assembly
348 Hebert
Chitepo Avenue
http://af.reuters.com/
Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:57pm
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has banned the export of chrome
from Wednesday
as it looks to build internal refinery capacity, the Ministry
of Mines and
Mining Development said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe, along with
South Africa, holds about 90 percent of the world's
chromite reserves and
resources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey,
and the ban will affect
exports to China and South Africa.
There are three large-scale
ferrochrome miners in Zimbabwe, including
Zimbabwe Alloys and Zimasco, which
is owned by China's Sinosteel. Zimasco
recently told state media it planned
a $300 million investment in the second
half of 2011 to ramp up output and
build a new smelter.
Zimbabwe already has three smelters that have the
capacity to handle 1.5
million tonnes of chrome.
The ministry in
November 2009 allowed the export of chrome for another 18
months, a period
which will expire on Wednesday.
"We wish to advise all exporters of lumpy
chrome that with effect from this
date, no more exports of shall be
entertained", the ministry said in a
notice published in the local
newspapers.
Zimbabwe exported 600,000 tonnes of chrome in the 18 months
from November
2009, mostly to China and South Africa, according to official
figures.
http://www.radiovop.com
19/04/2011 12:58:00
Harare, April 19, 2011
- THE financially-beleaguered Constitutional and
Parliamentary Committee
(Copac) has received a much-needed US$10 million
shot in the arm from the
cash-strapped Government of Zimbabwe and the United
Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), we can now reveal.
The Government gave US$5 million
while the UNDP chipped in with another US$5
million for the broke
constitutional-making process which has caused
numerous headaches for
everyone, including the three Principles of the
Global Political Arrangement
(GPA).
The three GPA Principles are namely, President Robert Mugabe of
the former
ruling party, Zanu (PF), Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the
now ruling
MDC-T (Tsvangirai) party and current Deputy Prime Minister Arthur
Mutambara
ousted and former boss of the splinter MDC.
"The Project
Board is very grateful for the commitment shown by the
Government of
Zimbabwe (GOZ) through its recent contribution of another US$5
million,
making a total of US$12,5 million in direct cash contribution to
this
process, as well as contributions in kind in terms of providing
logistical
support, office accommodation and secondment of staff in the
provinces
during outreach," Advocate Eric Matinenga, a Member of Parliament
of the
MDC-T (Tsvangirai) party and current Minister of Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs said in a statement on behalf of the
government.
"We are also very pleased to announce that donors supporting
the process
have further contributed another US$5 million through the UNDP,"
the
statement said.
"These contributions from Canada, The
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the
United Kingdom (UK) are in addition to
the US$12 million already provided by
the 11 contributing donors, including
the UNDP."
The donors said they hoped the cash would help "implement the
plans for the
remainder of the Constitution-making process".
"The
implementation of this process is an important step towards fulfilment
of
the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and hence an important contribution
to
the development of the country," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the Copac
Project Board overseeing the Constitutional-making
process said it had
approved "the activities to be carried out during the
Second Quarter of
2011".
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Xolisani Ncube, Staff
Writer
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 18:08
HARARE - Zimbabwe and
Swaziland civil society groups with South African
social movements will
tomorrow hold a peace and democracy rally in South
Africa demanding peace
and democracy in the entire Southern African region.
The rally is
meant to urge the Sadc leadership to demonstrate its total
commitment to
good governance, rule of law and respect for human rights.
In a statement
issued to commemorate Zimbabwe’s 31 years of independence,
the civil society
called upon the Sadc leadership to ensure human rights are
respected.
Reads part of the statement: “We demand that Sadc takes
urgent note of the
desires and aspirations of its people and takes vital
steps … to suspend any
member state that wilfully violates Sadc principles
and standards on
elections, democracy or violates the basic rights of its
citizens.”
The rally will be held in solidarity with the democratic
forces in Swaziland
who are demanding an end to the dictatorship of King
Mswati.
The civil groupings have urged Sadc to police Zimbabwe so that
the Troika
resolutions are implemented by President Robert
Mugabe.
“We strongly urge Sadc to ensure that its Troika resolution on
Zimbabwe
taken on March 31 in Livingstone, Zambia are fully and timeously
implemented.”
“As Zimbabwe civil society groups in South Africa, we
register unfettered
support and endorsement of the democratic struggle that
the people of
Swaziland are engaged in and we wish to strongly urge our
Swazi brothers and
sisters to remain focused and committed to the struggle
until victory is
achieved.
“This is the same struggle we are fighting
in Zimbabwe, and our common
vision is of a democratic, peaceful and
socio-economically developed
Southern Africa,” the statement
adds.
The civic society groups warned Sadc of the dangers of suppressing
the
people and drew parallels with what is happening in North
Africa.
“We wish to categorically warn African governments, in
particular, those of
Swaziland and Zimbabwe, to note that if citizens are
continually subjected
to the subversion of their will, they may end up
resorting to popular
uprisings in the nature of what has been witnessed
recently in North Africa
with the direct effect of destabilising the region
and reversing any gains
made.”
“All Sadc leaders must ensure, protect
and promote the fundamental rights of
their peoples fully respecting the
principles and standards they have signed
to in terms of various Sadc
protocols, in particular those regarding the
holding of free and fair
elections as well as guaranteeing effective citizen
participation in
government and free political activity,” said the
statement.
(CNN) -- Remittances sent from abroad are a lifeline for millions in Africa, and now online services are aiming to make it quicker and easier to transfer money to the continent.
According to the World Bank and the African Development Bank, members of the African Diaspora send home around $40 billion every year. But the actual figure is likely to be significantly higher as a large proportion of funds are transferred through various informal channels.
Now, Ismail Ahmed, founder and chief executive of WorldRemit, says he's found a way to make the whole process easier, while helping Africa minimize its dependence on cash.
His service allows users to send money to family and friends without having to visit agents and collect cash from their bank accounts. They can process transactions online, while funds are immediately available for collection in Africa, or credited to mobile accounts of recipients.
Speaking to CNN's Nima Elbagir, Ahmed said: "We are helping to move towards cashless economies in many parts of Africa."
An edited version of the interview follows.
CNN: The use of mobile phones to transfer funds is not new -- it's something that's been growing hugely in Africa. But what is new is the degree to which you've managed to refine the compliance.
Ismail Ahmed: That's true, because
regulators in the West are still concerned in the fact that people can carry
their money on a mobile. So what we've done is we've built a robust compliance
system which does more than what is required to screen both the senders and the
recipients. And this meets the regulator requirements, in particular in Europe
and North America.
CNN: Because one of the main issues with the
transfer of money has always been, and definitely with Islamic names, you get a
lot of false positives, a lot of alarm bells ringing in the system, because
there's a similarity with a name that's on a terrorist watch list.
IA: In the case of Arabic, Muslim names, we get something like up to a 40% false match.
Just to give you an example, I share both my names with the former spiritual leader of Hamas. My name is Ismail Ahmed, his name is Ahmed Ismail. So every time I use a money-transfer service, including mine, the screening software comes up with a 100% match.
But imagine someone who lives in a small village in Africa, who shares all of his names with someone on the sanction list -- that is much harder to prove that the person is not the terrorist.
CNN: And given how dependent many African economies are on money being sent back home from the diaspora, things like these might sound like small irritations but they have a huge impact on the economy.
And some of the transfers are for urgent reasons -- somebody is ill or going to hospital, for school fees, so even a small delay could be critical.
CNN: It's interesting that in Africa, the way that the technological market has worked is that mobile phones completely circumvented the need for landlines, and it almost seems, with your system, you're circumventing the need to have local bank branches around the continent.
IA: That is true, and we are helping to move towards cashless economies in many parts of Africa. Africa is leapfrogging and moving closer to a cashless society.
In Kenya you have 13 million Kenyans who use the local money-transfer service. In Somaliland the local mobile operator introduced local domestic money-transfer services a year ago. Now, 90% of local transactions are conducted through online, so Somaliland is becoming literally a cashless society.
So we're helping from this end and saying, if people can do that in Africa, why would a migrant who's working need to travel one or two hours to send cash?
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
18/04/2011 19:10:00 By Andrew Meldrum
President Robert
Mugabe, 87 and in power for 31 years, said Zimbabwe had
made progress
economically and politically and was on track for
constitutional reforms
before elections. Mugabe did not set a date for the
elections, but many
speculate that he will call early elections this year.
Mugabe blamed the
country's troubles on the personal sanctions against him
and his 200 closest
associates. But he said the U.S. and Europe Union are
not prepared to
discuss lifting the sanctions.
“We have had disappointing results so far
in our efforts to re-engage the
Americans and the European Union over
sanctions,” he said. “When will Europe
ever realize that there is
international law which forbids us from
interfering in the domestic affairs
of others?”
A totally different message came from Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai, 58,
who said Zimbabwe is suffering "looting and plunder" by
Mugabe and his
ruling party, Zanu-PF.
Tsvangirai lambasted Mugabe's
plans to force all businesses and mining firms
to have 51 percent black
ownership within five years. The Indigenization and
Economic Empowerment
requires all foreign-owned companies worth over
$500,000 to have at least 51
percent black ownership within five years.
Tsvangirai said the plan would
enrich Mugabe and his cronies in Zanu-PF but
would impoverish the nation's
economy.
Tsvangirai and others have said the "indigenization" of
Zimbabwe's
businesses and mining is like Mugabe's seizure of white-owned
farms over the
past 11 years. The farm grabs are widely blamed for
destroying the country's
once productive agriculture sector and causing
widespread hunger. Zimbabwe's
economy has been in a tailspin since 2000 when
the land seizures began.
Who is right? Mugabe or
Tsvangirai?
Mugabe defended his plan to force foreign mining companies to
submit their
plans to cede 51 percent of their shares to black Zimbabweans.
The
companies, including mining firms, have until May 9 to submit their
plans to
transfer shares to black Zimbabweans. Mugabe said it is part of a
broad
economic program to empower black Zimbabweans.
But critics say
that the scheme will channel lucrative shares to Mugabe's
inner ruling
circle. "Now thirty years after independence, we are being told
by
multi-millionaires and multiple farm owners that indigenization will set
us
free," he said.
"By this, they are not referring to broad-based
empowerment of the ordinary
man and woman, but the looting and plunder of
national resources by a small,
parasitic elite," said Tsvangirai, according
to Reuters.
Economists widely agree that Mugabe's management of
Zimbabwe's economy has
impoverished a once prosperous nation. Once known as
"the breadbasket of
Africa" for its agricultural productivity, Zimbabwe has
been dependent upon
international food handouts for years.
Mugabe's
control of the economy brought hyperinflation that many say was the
worst
the world has ever seen. How bad was that inflation? At the height of
the
inflation in 2008, prices increased by nearly 100 percent every 24
hours.
That works out to an astounding 80 billion percent per month,
according to
Johns Hopkins applied economics professor Steve H. Hanke, who
developed the
Hanke Hyperinflation Index for Zimbabwe (HHIZ).
“Zimbabwe’s inflation
rate … peaked at 80 billion percent a month," said
Hanke. "That means around
6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent a year –
or 65 followed by 107
zeros. To get a handle on it, realize that it’s
equivalent to inflation of
98 percent a day. Prices double every 24.7
hours.”
Inflation was
only brought under control after Mugabe created a coalition
government with
opposition leader Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic
Change party.
One of Tsvangirai's deputies, Finance Minister Tendai Biti,
jettisoned the
Zimbabwean currency and currently the economy operates by
using the U.S.
dollar, the British pound and the South African rand, as well
as the
Botswanan pula, the Zambian kwacha and the Mozambican metecai.
Mugabe let
Tsvangirai and Biti bring down inflation, but he did not stop
hounding their
party. MDC supporters have continued to be beaten by Mugabe's
supporters and
they get little to no protection from the police. Many
Zimbabweans say the
beatings — which have been reported countrywide — are
the way the Mugabe
campaigns. Mugabe is expected to call for early elections
this year so that
he can be voted president for yet another five-year term.
However, all is
not rosy for Mugabe. He came under unexpected pressure at
the end of March
when he met with South African President Jacob Zuma and
Namibian president
Hifikepunye Pohamba and Mozambican president Armando
Guebuza in
Livingtstone, Zambia, in the shadow of Victorial Falls. The thee
leaders met
with Mugabe as representatives of the 15-nation Southern African
Development
Community (SADC). subjected Mugabe to unusually harsh criticism,
telling him
to stop all violence.
Usually the SADC summits have been tame affairs for
Mugabe because South
Africa and the other SADC members have supported
Mugabe's rule. It was SADC
that enabled Mugabe to stay in power even though
he lost the 2008 elections.
SADC came up with the solution of a power
sharing government in which Mugabe
retained virtually all power and
Tsvangirai did all the sharing.
But the March 31 summit in Livingstone
was decidedly different. Zuma lashed
out at Mugabe, charging that the
violence and repression was making a
mockery of the government of national
unity and threatening its viability,
according to reports from the
summit.
Ordinarily the final communiques issued after the SADC summits
are bland,
bureauratic statements — but not this one. It boldly states that
things must
change in Zimbabwe. "There must be an immediate end of violence,
intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and any other form of action that
contradicts the letter and spirit" of the power sharing government, states
the communique. It went further to urge Mugabe to "create a conducive
environment for peace, security, and free political activity" and to
"complete all the steps necessary for the holding of the election including
the finalization of the constitutional amendment and the
referendum."
This was a slap to Mugabe. He was told to change his ways.
Of course Mugabe,
a master political manipulator, has finagled his way out
of jams like this
before. But at the Livingstone summit he looked weak and
tired. At 87,
Mugabe is beginning to show his age.
Mugabe looked
frail, according to insiders attending the summit in Victoria
Falls. He had
difficulty walking unassisted and went everywhere, even very
short
distances, slumped in a golf cart. Always by Mugabe's side was
Emmerson
Mnangagwa, his much-feared henchman and minister of defense.
There is
considerable speculation that Mnangagwa and others in Zanu-PF want
Mugabe to
call early elections and to use the same violence used in other
elections to
achieve a Zanu-PF victory that will permit the party to rule
for another
five years. They fear that Mugabe's health is deteriorating so
quickly that
he could not lead the party in elections next year.
It's no surprise that
most Zimbabweans find little to celebrate on the
country's independence day.
But it seems that Robert Mugabe, beset by old
age and challenges to his
rule, does not have much to celebrate, either. -
GlobaPost
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/opinion/19godwin.html
By PETER GODWIN
Published: April 18,
2011
BARELY was Laurent Gbagbo, wearing a sweat-damp white tank
top and a
startled expression, prodded at rebel gunpoint from the bombed
ruins of his
presidential bunker in Ivory Coast, than Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham
Clinton announced this conclusion: His ejection, more than
four months after
he refused to accept electoral defeat, sent “a strong
signal to dictators
and tyrants throughout the region and around the world.
They may not
disregard the voice of their own people in free and fair
elections, and
there will be consequences for those who cling to
power.”
Zimbabwe’s 87-year-old president, Robert Mugabe, who began his
32nd year in
power this week, must have chortled when he heard that
one.
The parallels between Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe are striking: both
were once
viewed as the singular successes in their respective regions, the
envy of
their neighbors. Both Mr. Gbagbo, a former history professor, and
Mr.
Mugabe, a serial graduate student, are highly educated men who helped
liberate their countries from authoritarian regimes.
Both later
clothed themselves in the racist vestments of extreme nativism.
Mr. Gbagbo
claimed that his rival Alassane Ouattara couldn’t stand for
president
because his mother wasn’t Ivorian; Mr. Mugabe disenfranchised
black
Zimbabweans who had blood ties to neighboring states (even though his
own
father is widely believed to have been Malawian).
The two countries have
also been similarly plagued by north-south conflicts.
And when they spiraled
into failed statehood, both leaders blamed the West,
in particular their
former colonial powers — France and Britain — for
interfering to promote
regime change.
Finally, the international community imposed sanctions
against both
countries, including bans on foreign travel and the freezing of
bank
accounts, that have largely proved insufficient.
But here’s
where the stories crucially diverge — why Laurent Gbagbo is no
longer in
power, while Robert Mugabe, who lost an election in 2008,
continues to flout
his people’s will.
The most important point of departure was the sharply
contrasting behavior
of regional powers. The dominant player in West Africa,
Nigeria, immediately
recognized the validity of Mr. Ouattara’s victory in
United
Nations-supervised elections, and worked within the regional
alliance, the
Economic Community of West African States, to unseat the
reluctant loser.
But Zimbabwe’s most powerful neighbor, South Africa, played
a very different
role. Instead of helping to enforce democracy, it has
provided cover for Mr.
Mugabe to stay on.
Partly this is due to what
is called “liberation solidarity.” Most of the
political parties still in
power in southern Africa were originally
anti-colonial liberation movements
— like those in South Africa, Mozambique,
Namibia and Angola — and they tend
to abhor the aura-diminishing prospect of
seeing any of their fellows
jettisoned.
It is also because South Africa eyes the Zimbabwean
opposition — which
morphed out of a once-loyal trade union movement —
through the suspicious
lens of its own trade union movement’s contemplation
of opposition politics.
As a result, instead of supporting the Zimbabwean
opposition in 2008, Thabo
Mbeki, then the South African president, bullied
it into a power-sharing
government of national unity headed by Mr. Mugabe.
This democracy-defying
model has threatened to metastasize into the
mainstream of African politics;
that same year it was also applied to Kenya,
where a unity government was
set up to end post-election bloodshed. When Mr.
Mbeki was deputized by the
African Union to broker a solution in Ivory
Coast, that was the Band-Aid he
reached for — but it was rightly rejected by
Mr. Ouattara.
Of course, the other crucial difference is that in Ivory
Coast, the dictator’s
ejection came at the hands of men with guns. The
northern rebels moved on
Abidjan. The United Nations peacekeepers, trussed
by restrictive mandates as
always, nevertheless protected Mr. Ouattara until
the French expanded an
airport-securing operation into something altogether
more ambitious. They
basically prized Mr. Gbagbo from his bunker, though to
avoid bad
postcolonial optics, they brought the rebels in to make the final
move.
In contrast, for refusing to plunge the country into a civil war,
Zimbabwe’s
democratic opposition has been rewarded by the international
community by
being largely ignored.
Next month, a group of southern
African nations will discuss Mr. Mugabe’s
continued resistance to
agreed-upon reforms intended to pave the way to free
elections. Either South
Africa must get Mr. Mugabe to honor them, or it must
withdraw its support
for him. If it won’t, then the international community
needs to push South
Africa out of leading the negotiations, and engage more
directly.
Zimbabweans need help if their voices are to be heard. If
the United States
wants to prove that Mrs. Clinton’s words were more than
empty rhetoric, it
should begin by pressuring South Africa. Otherwise
Zimbabwe’s hopes for
freedom will founder, even as Ivory Coast regains its
stolen democracy.
Peter Godwin is the author of “The Fear: Robert Mugabe
and the Martyrdom of
Zimbabwe.”
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri 19/04/11
Pressure is building up on the
Zimbabwe regime to free the airwaves amidst
the dishing out by the Zimbabwe
Media Commission of newspaper licences like
confetti than previously
anticipated. Notably, by 15 April, a total of 22
publications had been
licensed since last year although no private radio or
television station has
been licensed as the same time.
While welcoming the diversity of the
print media, experts are concerned that
some of the new publications are
being set up to ‘prop up a government whose
fortunes are waning by the day’
(The Daily News, Free the airwaves now,
15/04/11).
Of interest has
been the licensing of the National Day and the Patriot. The
former is said
to be owned by the late businessman Roger Boka’s family,
however, there are
claims that it is being financed by the Chinese
Government and Zanu-pf
Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa (The Zimbabwe
Mail, 17/02/11). Sources
say The Patriot is owned by Supa Mandiwanzira
another Mugabe
ally.
Women Affairs Deputy Minister Jessie Majome has said the inclusive
government has failed Zimbabweans by continuously depriving rural
populations of their right to freedom of expression and association by its
reluctance to free the airwaves and licence new radio stations (Zimeye,
01/09/10).
Subsequently, agitation for the freeing of the airwaves
has gradually
increased at a time when there is talk of possible elections.
Freeing the
airwaves would tremendously benefit the country’s majority rural
population
some whose radio sets were confiscated by bthe CIO and the
police.
Furthermore, alternative independent radio stations have been
jammed by the
regime’s security agents something that is likely to increase
in the run-up
to the referendum and elections unless SADC prevails on
Zanu-pf.
Adding their voices to the campaign was a coalition of civil
society
organisations in Zimbabwe called CISSOM. In a report covering the
period
February 2010 to February 2011 the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism
(CISSOM) condemned the status of the radio and television sector. CISSOM
accused public broadcasters of ‘aggressively’ promoting Zanu-pf and
‘presenting biased coverage of national events ‘(Audiencescapes.org,
14/03/11).
More pressure came from the Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA
Zimbabwe) which on 8th April 2011 in partnership with Artists
for Democracy
in Zimbabwe Trust (ADZ Trust) and Nhasi Mangwana Trust staged
a concert
titled ‘Free the Airwaves Now’ (The Zimbabwean,
11/04/11).
Zanu-Pf has reportedly indicated that it was not going to
comply with the
remaining GPA outstanding issues including the opening of
airwaves if the
MDC does not call for the removal of targeted
sanctions.
As if to prove that point ZBC has refused to play MDC songs
while saturating
the airwaves with Zanu-pf jingles. Asked why they have not
been playing the
MDC album, a ZBC public relations manager, Sivukile Simango
reportedly said:
‘We did not play it and we will never play it on ZBC,
never. I can refer you
to Muchechetere (ZBC chief executive) so that he can
comment on issues of
policy, but as of now can just tell you, we will never
play that music’ (The
Daily News, 10/04/11).
The question on every
person’s mind is: ‘When will Robert Mugabe free the
airwaves?’
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London, zimanalysis@gmail.com
BILL WATCH 17/2011
[19th
April 2011]
The Senate has adjourned to Tuesday 10th
May
The House of Assembly has adjourned to Tuesday 17th May
General
Laws Amendment Bill Passed with Amendments by House of
Assembly
The Parliamentary Legal Committee [PLC] returned a non-adverse report
on this Bill in March, but only after the PLC and the Minister of Justice and
Legal Affairs [“the Minister”] reached a compromise under which the Minister
agreed that he would withdraw the copyright clause [clause 16] and
modify the civil aviation clause [clause 7]. The PLC’s
non-adverse report was conditional on these changes being made. [See Bill
Watch 10/2011 of 15th March.] The Bill proceeded with its second reading
and committee stage during which other changes were also made by the House
[see below for details]. The Bill was passed on its third reading, then
transmitted to the Senate for consideration when it resumes sitting in May.
Because of the amendments it is now numbered H.B. 8A, 2010 to distinguish it
from the original Bill, which was H.B. 8, 2010.
[Electronic version of amended
Bill available.]
Second
Reading Debate
After the Minister had explained the Bill to the House, the reports
of two portfolio committees on the Bill were presented by the committee
chairpersons.
Portfolio
Committee Reports
Committee
on Local Government, Rural and Urban Development The
committee had received submissions on the Bill from the Bulawayo Progressive
Residents Association and the Local Government Association. It recommended the
dropping of the Bill’s clauses providing for procurement of goods and services
by local authorities to be under the control of the Government Tender Board.
Instead, the Committee recommended that the Minister of Local Government should
devise a model procurement law for use by all local authorities.
Committee
on Justice, Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs This
committee had received submissions from stakeholders, calling for:
· the
dropping of the Bill’s clause on copyright in Acts, statutory instruments, court
judgments and other official publications and the clauses on local authority
procurement, citing inconsistency with the Constitution;
· the
reduction of the proposed mandatory minimum sentences for rhino poaching from 9
and 11 years to 5 years
· reconsideration of the clause for imposition of civil penalties by
the Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] on offenders against regulations made under
the Aviation Act.
Minister’s
Response
In his
reply to the debate, the Minister:
· refused to
budge on the mandatory gaol sentences for rhino poaching, saying they were
needed to deter the killing of this endangered species
· said he
would move an amendment removing the local authority procurement clause. The
Minister said it would be up to the Minister of Local Government, if so advised,
to come up with a separate Bill dealing with procurement by local authorities.
· also said
the copyright clause would be removed from the Bill in accordance with the
decision previously reached
· confirmed
that he would move an amendment to the clause on “civil penalties” for the
aviation industry – this would make it clear that the civil penalties could be
challenged in court.
The Bill was then read the second time, clearing the way for the
Committee Stage, which is when a Bill is considered in detail, clause by clause,
and changes can be made to its contents.
Committee
Stage
The major changes that were made to the Bill were all proposed by the
Minister and were as follows:
Removed
from Bill
· Copyright
in Acts, Government Gazettes and court decisions – clause
16 was entirely removed from the Bill. This means that the present law will
remain unchanged, i.e., there will be no Government copyright in the text of
Acts, statutory instruments, court proceedings and judgments, and the contents
of official registers. It will still be possible, therefore, for such material
to be published without Government permission.
· Local
authority procurement procedures – clauses
18 and 19 were also removed. The clauses would have amended the Rural District
Councils Act and the Urban Councils Act to place local authority procurement of
goods and services under the Government Procurement Board.
Modifications
· Modification of civil penalties amendment of Civil Aviation
Act The House adopted the Minister’s amendment, under which a civil
penalty may be challenged if the CAA attempts to enforce it by court process.
[Industry stakeholders may regard this as a less than satisfactory response
to their basic objection to the clause, which is that it is unconstitutional for
a Bill to empower the imposition of penalties – even if described as “civil
penalties” – by a body that is not an independent court or tribunal –
Constitution, section 18.]
· Labour
Court – provision for completion of part-heard cases The
original clause to amend the Labour Act [now clause 18] has been expanded to
insert a new section in the Labour Act to cover what will happen when a Labour
Court President retires, is appointed to the High Court, dies or is removed from
office, before completing a case. In the case of retirement or High Court
appointment, the outgoing President will complete the case. Other cases will be
reassigned to another President, either for continuation from the point already
reached, if the parties so agree, or, if they do not agree, for rehearing from
the beginning. These administrative changes are deemed to have come into force
on 31st December 2005, which is the date of commencement of the last amendment
to the Labour Act.
· Labour
Court – leave to appeal to Supreme Court Appeals
against Labour Court decisions can be made to the Supreme Court on questions of
law only. In addition leave to appeal must first be obtained from the President
who handed down the decision. Clause 18 of the Bill, as amended, will change
that to allow leave to appeal to be given by another Labour Court President “in
the absence of” the original President. This change, too, is deemed to have
come into force on 31st December 2005.
New
clauses added to Bill
· Backdating
of commencement of National Biotechnology Authority Act The
Minister did not explain the need for this clause, which provides that the Act
shall be deemed to have come into operation on 1st September 2006, which is when
it was originally gazetted. The date of commencement of the Act should have
been fixed by the President by statutory instrument, but the need to do so was
overlooked and the Authority has in fact, if not in law, been operational since
2006. So this clause is an attempt to clothe the Authority’s operations over
the last four years with legality. There is an important proviso, however,
saying that provisions creating criminal offences will only come into
operation when the present Bill eventually becomes law. [Note: the proviso
is necessary because the Constitution forbids the retrospective creation of
criminal liability.]
· Amendment
of Banking Act – minimum capital requirements for banking
institutions The
current section 29 of the Banking Act requires banking institutions to maintain
“minimum equity capital” at levels to be prescribed in regulations made under
the Act. This new clause drops the word “equity”, so that when the Bill becomes
law banking institutions will have to abide by “minimum capital” requirements as
prescribed. The clause provides a definition of “minimum capital” referring to
the “permanent commitments” by an institution’s shareholders that will qualify
as minimum capital.
· Backdating
of US dollar tariff for legal practitioners costs to February
2009 The new clause 19 backdates to 1st February 2009 the High Court
(Fees and Allowances) (Amendment) Rules gazetted in SI 12/2011. This will
enable successful litigants who have been awarded their costs by the High Court
to claim their legal costs since 1st February 2009 in US dollars. The 1st February 2009
was when the multi-currency regime was inaugurated – but the fees and allowances
permitted by the High Court rules continued to be stated in Zimbabwe dollars
until SI 12/2011 was gazetted on 4th February this year. [A question: Why
doesn’t the clause also refer to the magistrates court tariff enacted in SI
2/2011? During the Committee Stage on the Bill the Minister said the new clause
covered both High Court and magistrates court cases.]
[Comment: The changes to the Bill in response to recommendations from
the portfolio committees and the PLC illustrate how the committee system can
assist in giving interested parties a real chance to influence legislation
passing through Parliament – and also demonstrates that it is worthwhile
lobbying committees even after a Bill has been approved by Cabinet and
gazetted.]
Further Changes to Bill Still Possible
It is not too late for further changes to be made to the Bill as it
goes through the Senate. The Minister and Senators can therefore be lobbied to
improve the Bill by making amendments during the Senate Committee Stage.
Clauses that are obvious candidates for further change
are—
· Aviation Act Civil Penalties [clause 6] – aviation industry stakeholders may feel that the
provision for the imposition of civil penalties by the Civil Aviation Authority
is still unsatisfactory despite the amendment made by the
House
· Backdating of Legal Costs [clause 19] – this clause could be improved by being broadened to
cover costs in the magistrates court as well as the High
Court.
Note on Bill’s Amendment of Ombudsman Act
Contrary to a press article this week, clause 5 of the Bill, amending
the Ombudsman Act, does not introduce a new procedure for the appointment
of the Public Protector and Deputy Public Protector. It was Constitution
Amendment No. 18 that in 2007 (1) adopted the name “Public Protector” in place
of “Ombudsman”, and (2) introduced the new appointment procedure, under which
the President, before appointing a Public Protector or Deputy Public Protector,
must consult the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders [as well
as the Judicial Service Commission which has always been and remains involved].
Clause 5, therefore, is merely a belated, purely formal, follow-up to changes
made to the Constitution by Constitution Amendment No. 18 of 2007: it amends the
Ombudsman Act to incorporate the “new” term “Public Protector”, updates the
preamble to the Act by reciting the current wording of the two short
constitutional provisions dealing with the Public Protector, and changes the
title of the Act to “Public Protector Act”.
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