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Govt
plans to legalise unpaid seizure of foreign firms
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
23
April 2013
The ZANU PF led empowerment ministry is planning to legalise
the unpaid
takeover of foreign owned companies in Zimbabwe, in the latest
twist in the
indigenisation campaign.
According to the Sunday Mail
newspaper, the Ministry is working closely with
the Attorney General’s
office to make key amendments to the Indigenisation
and Empowerment Act,
which currently stipulates that shares be bought by the
government at fair
market value.
The amendments, according to the Sunday Mail, are being
designed to ensure
that ‘the people of Zimbabwe benefit fully, and without
cost whatsoever,
from enterprises that exploit their God-given natural
resources’.
The indigenisation campaign, spearheaded by Robert Mugabe’s
party, requires
foreign owned firms to cede 51% of their shares to
Zimbabweans. Companies
that have complied with the indigenisation rules have
done so with
agreements that they would be compensated.
Mining giant
Implats, for example, in its Indigenisation agreement, said it
will transfer
20% of its local Zimplats shares to employee and community
trusts and 31% to
a state-run National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Fund. Implats
agreed to ‘sell’ this majority stake for $971
million, by loaning Zimbabwe
the money that would be paid back with
interest.
This agreement saw
Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere land in hot
water with Mugabe,
who told the state media in March: “That is the problem,
they gave us 51 per
cent saying that it is a loan that we are giving you,
and we are paying for
you in advance and then you can pay us back tomorrow.”
He added: “I think
that is where our minister made a mistake. He did not
quite understand what
was happening, and yet our theory is that the resource
is ours and that
resource is our share, that is where the 51 per cent comes
from.”
Kasukuwere has since said that Mugabe’s position is the
correct one, and
Implats needs to take the President’s comments into
account.
Economist Masimba Kuchera told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that
it was this
situation that has led to the indigenisation legislation being
amended,
saying it proves “the government was not sincere at all with the
indigenisation plans.”
Kuchera also warned that this latest
development will have a serious impact
on the already fragile investment
market in Zimbabwe, because there is no
clarity about what the empowerment
rules are.
“This lack of clarity means Zimbabwe’s economy will be
hamstrung vis a vis
investment, because investors are not sure about how the
law will be
interpreted (if they invest),” Kuchera said, adding: “It puts
everyone in a
difficult position.”
Indigenisation:
Kasukuwere changes course
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
22/04/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
THE government is working on changes to the country’s
indigenisation regime
that will likely render null and void the US$971
million Zimplats compliance
transaction as well as tweak the programme in
line with suggestions made by
the central bank.
The Zimplats
agreement was the single largest compliance transaction steered
by
Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere under the programme which gives
Zimbabweans 51 percent ownership and control of foreign companies operating
in the country.
But the transaction is now mired in controversy over
allegations of
irregularities while Kasukuwere was also publicly slated by
President Robert
Mugabe who accused the minister of making a mistake when
signing off the
deal.
Under the terms of the agreement, beneficiary
institutions were expected to
pay full fair value for the equity but Mugabe
said the government’s policy
was that the mineral resource belonged to
Zimbabwe and should make up the
country’s 51 percent contribution to the
business.
“I think that is where our minister made a mistake. He did not
quite
understand what was happening and yet theory yedu ndeyekuti resource
iyoyo
ndeyedu and that resource is our share that is where the 51 percent
comes
from,” the Zanu PF leader said in his birthday interview with state
media.
Kasukuwere’s supporters however, said the deal was still to be
finalised but
in what appears to be a direct response to Mugabe’s criticism,
the minister
is now working on legislative changes that would see mineral
resources being
used as payment for the 51 % equity acquisitions.
A
white paper outlining the proposed changes states that: “The
Indigenisation
and Empowerment Ministry and Government of Zimbabwe would
like to revise
materially, the policy and law on indigenisation and
empowerment with
respect to the acquisition of 51 percent shareholding in
all non-indigenous
businesses operating in the country.
“The motivation for this position
arises out of the desire to ensure that
the people of Zimbabwe benefit
fully, and without cost whatsoever, from
enterprises that exploit their
God-given natural resources.
“Government’s endeavour in this regard is to
realise shareholding in such
non-indigenous businesses in exchange for
natural resources, thereby
creating enterprise partnerships between
non-indigenous investors and
indigenous entities based on contribution of
resource of capital in the
measure reflected in by our 51/49 percent
law.”
Observers said the changes would likely render null and void
various deals
reached with mining companies such as the South Africa-based
platinum majors
Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum
(Implats) as well as
Canadian gold miner, Caledonia Mining.
Amplats
owns the Unki Platinum Mine in Shurugwi while Implats developed the
Zimplats
operations in the Selous area and also owned a 50 percent interest
in
Zvishavane-based Mimosa Platinum.
“The proposed changes mean that all the
agreements reached so far are null
and void and that vendor financing will
also be outlawed. Everyone will have
to go back to the drawing board,” said
a government official who did not
want to be named.
“The development
also throws up interesting questions regarding the US$17
million demanded by
(Harare advisory firm) Brainworks Capital for work
related to the Zimplats
transaction. Who is going to pay for advice that has
been thrown
out?”
Again, in an apparent nod to a counter empowerment proposal made by
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono, the proposed changes
would also
include “provisions on procurement (aimed at) achieving the
regulation of
procurement practices of private and public companies and
preferential
procurement for women, youths, disabled and local
communities”.
Gono has long argued that the equity model pursued by
Kasukuwere would not
lead to broad-based economic empowerment and proposed a
counter approach
that would compel the foreign companies to do most their
procurement with
indigenous entities.
The proposal was however
ridiculed by Zanu PF politburo member, Jonathan
Moyo who said: “the (logic
of the) so-called supply side model touted by
Gono is akin to that of a
house nigger whose hopeless mentality is that it
is far better to profit
from selling the furniture of the house as a vendor
under the spell of
Maslow’s discredited hierarchy of needs than to own the
house even if it
does not have any furniture.”
Gono and Kasukuwere have also clashed over
the indigenisation of the country’s
banking sector with the RBZ chief
arguing that a one-size-fits-all approach
would likely harm a key but
sensitive and still fragile sector of the
economy.
Kasukuwere
however, says the banks must comply with the law and is leaning
on the local
units of the UK-based Barclays and Standard Chartered banks as
well as South
Africa’s Standard and Nedbank groups to submit compliance
plans.
Zanu-PF
Factionalism Worsens in Manicaland Province
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Loirdham
Moyo
23.04.2013
HARARE — Serious divisions within President Robert
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party
were exposed in court today when two officials took
the stand in Mutare in a
case in which former Manicaland provincial
chairman, Mike Madiro, and acting
Women’s League chairperson, Dorothy
Mabika, are accused of allegedly
stealing cattle donated for the president’s
birthday last year.
Zanu-PF members John Chirimambowa and Angawashe Nelia
Maenda followed their
party’s secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa,
in incriminating the
two for allegedly stealing 10 cattle donated to the
21st February Movement
for the president’s birthday
bash.
Chirimambowa, a farmer and Zanu-PF provincial secretary for
production and
labour, told Mutare magistrate Lucy Anne Mungwari that he
sold the 10 beasts
to the party for $5,000, adding they should have been
slaughtered for the
celebrations to mark Mr. Mugabe’s 88th
birthday.
Defence lawyer Tinofara Hove said the two are victims of
factionalism in
Zanu-PF in Manicaland Province.
The defense said the
fact that the beasts are still at Chirimambowa’s farm
means he is the one
who stole the cattle since he had been paid in full.
Chirimambowa refuted
the claim saying factionalism had nothing to do with
the case.
Mr.
Hove claimed that Chirimambowa was part of a plan to persecute the two,
an
allegation he denied.
Maenda, the acting Zanu-PF provincial administrator
and the party’s
secretary for production and labour in the Women’s League,
said accused
Mabika of ordering her to alter minutes of an earlier meeting
about the
missing cattle to save her from the police.
The accused is
said to have sent a text message to another Zanu-PF colleague
asking them to
work together to change the minutes concerning three of the
10
beasts.
Maenda told the court that the former provincial chairman also
instructed
her to move the cattle to the home of Zanu-PF councillor for ward
25, Peter
Dombropoulos’ farm in Odzi.
The accused’s attorney
maintained his clients were being used as scapegoats
in Zanu-PF factionalism
that has torn the former liberation party apart in
the province. Two
employees who work for Zanu-PF in the province are
expected to take the
stand before the case is wrapped-up. The case continues
tomorrow.
Mutasa
takes stand in Madiro stock theft trial
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
22/04/2013 00:00:00
by
Abel Zhakata I Herald
THE trial of suspended Zanu PF Manicaland
chairman Mike Madiro and his
deputy Dorothy Mabika, who are facing charges
of stock theft, began in
Mutare on Monday.
Madiro, 49, and Mabika, 47,
face charges of theft involving 10 cattle
donated by a Chipinge farmer
towards the hosting of celebrations for
President Robert Mugabe’s birthday
in Mutare last year.
The duo, through their lawyer, Tinofara Hove,
pleaded not guilty to the
charges when the trial began before Mutare
provincial magistrate Lucie-Anne
Mungwari.
Zanu PF officials Didymus
Mutasa, Absalom Sikhosana and Supa Mandiwanzira
all took the witness stand
after being called by the prosecution.
Mutasa told the court the duo
erred by not disclosing the cattle to the
party, as well as slaughtering
three of the beasts for an event other than
the 21st February Movement
celebrations for which they were meant.
He said the party expects
accountability and Madiro, as the provincial
chairman, must have disclosed
everything that had been bought or donated
towards the celebrations
including the balance which the party normally
donates to
charity.
“If those cattle were secured for the 21st February
celebrations, and they
ended up being used for another function without the
party’s knowledge, that
is an offence. As the national secretary for
administration, I should have
been told of these developments,” he
said.
Mutasa rejected a charge by the defence lawyer that the trial
amounted to
political persecution.
“That’s not correct. They (Madiro and
Mabika) did wrong and that is why we
are in court. They are all my friends
and I believe we are friends,” he
said.
Prosecutors also called Zanu
PF national youth league chairman Absolom
Sikhosana and the party’s
treasurer for Manicaland, Supa Mandiwanzira.
Sikhosana, challenged by the
defence lawyer about factional fights in the
party’s Manicaland executive,
insisted that he was not aware of any
divisions and refused to answer
questions relating to the alleged rifts.
Mandiwanzira told the court he
released funds to pay for the 10 cattle,
adding that this was his only
involvement with the case. It was not
explained what happened to the money
he released, as the beasts at the
centre of the trial were
donated.
He also confirmed it was party practice that beasts bought for
one event can
be used for a different function as long as it is approved by
the party.
Jane Rose Matsikidze, prosecuting, told the court that
Madiro and Mabika
received the cattle donation on behalf of the party from
John Chirimambowa
of Farm 39, Middle Sabi, in Chipinge but did not hand them
over to the
party.
But Hove, in his defence outline, maintained that
his clients, who are on
US$150 bail each, are innocent.
He said the
“fictitious allegations” raised against them were a result of
political
persecution revolving around factionalism in the Zanu PF
provincial
structures in Manicaland.
“The defence will maintain that this is a case
of political persecution
whereby the State is being abused and used to
persecute the accused. This
has nothing to do with the administration of
justice,” the lawyer said.
“A perusal of the State outline together with
the state witnesses clearly
shows that the essential elements of stock theft
have not been specifically
alleged, let alone established.
“As of
now, the said cattle are still at the said farm. Therefore, if anyone
stole
the cattle, it should be John Chirimambowa since the cattle are at his
farm
and they have always been at his farm.”
The trial continues on
Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Mabika is being tried seperately tried on stock theft
charges
over six cows she received in 2011 from another Chipinge farmer,
Dawid
Hercules Jourbert, on behalf of Zanu PF.
She allegedly stole
the cattle and then tried to rewrite minutes of a
provincial executive
meeting to reflect that the party had written off the
beasts after they died
due to lack of stock feed.
Parties
rally behind MDC poll demands
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Tuesday, 23 April 2013 10:47
HARARE
- Political parties, including Zapu and the Welshman Ncube led MDC,
yesterday rallied behind Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC demands for
transparency in the voter registration process.
At a closed door
meeting between 18 political parties and the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission
(Zec) also attended by under-fire Registrar General
Tobaiwa Mudede, the
political parties demanded that Mudede be restricted to
the issuance of
identity documents only.
Mudede has been the Registrar General for the
past 33 years and stands
accused of working in complicity with President
Robert Mugabe’s party to rig
elections. Mudede has repeatedly denied the
charges.
Zapu spokesperson Mjubiso Noko, said Mudede failed to explain
delays in the
voter registration exercise.
“After the meeting Mudede
tried to defend himself on the issue of mobile
registration by blaming
Finance minister Tendai Biti. He was saying he has
not been given any money
for the programme but no one listened to him.
“He could not say anything
on the issue of ghost voters and the fact that
people openly told him he and
Zanu PF made things worse,” said Noko.
In a statement, MDC spokesperson
Douglas Mwonzora, said parties are
concerned with the lack of transparency
in the voter registration process.
“All the political parties expressed
dismay at the manner in which the voter
registration exercise was being
carried out by the Registrar General’s
office especially in the rural
areas.
“The MDC demanded that the residence requirement under which
potential
registrants were required to furnish the Registrar’s offices with
letters
from traditional leaders to prove their residents in various wards
must be
scrapped. This is because this requirement was being abused in some
areas
resulting in some people being denied these letters by the traditional
leaders on political grounds,” said Mwonzora.
The meeting between Zec
and political parties was called for after the MDC
wrote to the electoral
body expressing concern over the preparations of the
watershed elections
especially on voter registration.
“The MDC submitted that the appointment
of persons to run elections had to
be done in a politically inclusive
manner. This includes the appointment of
voter educators as well as polling
officers.
“During the referendum, Zec only appointed Zanu PF sympathisers
in the form
of ward youth officers to work as the polling officers. “This is
unacceptable.
Although the government had announced that mobile voter
registration
targeting mainly rural communities was supposed to commence on
January 3,
2013 nothing in that regard has materialised to date.
“The
MDC demanded that the mobile voter registration exercise be embarked
upon as
a matter of urgency,” said Mwonzora.
Sources said all parties except Zanu
PF demanded that Mudede’s wings should
be clipped.
Some smaller
parties that attended the meeting even threatened a poll
boycott unless
reforms are implemented.
Kisinoti Mukwazhe who leads the Zimbabwe
Development Party (ZDP) said there
is no need for elections if the office of
the Registrar General is not
reformed.
“Eight parties including ours
indicated that if reforms are not put in place
then they won’t be any need
for elections. The voters roll is in shambles
and Mudede who has rigged
elections for Zanu PF should be removed from the
process which must be led
by Zec.
“The process of registering to be a voter is taxing and meant to
frustrate
first time voters,” said Mukwazhe. - Richard Chidza and Fungi
Kwaramba
MDC-T,
Zanu PF slam voter registration
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
22/04/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
ZANU PF and the MDC-T have expressed concern
over irregularities in the
voter registration exercise as the country
prepares for elections expected
later this this year.
The parties met
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in Harare on Monday
to discuss the
state of the voters’ roll, registration of voters and
accreditation of
observers ahead of the elections.
Zanu PF’s Sydney Sekeramayi said they
had discovered cases in which people
were using unoccupied buildings as
their residencies when registering as
voters.
“If 60 people are
registered under Mahachi Building as their place of
residence or if we have
200 people registered under Goromonzi Secondary
School, it should begin to
raise eyebrows. This is an area we think ZEC
should look at,” he
said.
“Our concern is when we have large numbers of people registering
under one
house. These are some of the issues we feel distort our voters’
roll and
want them addressed.”
MDC-T chairman Lovemore Moyo said
people in rural areas were failing to
register because of the requirement to
produce proof of residence.
He said: “In rural areas we have been
confronted with a situation where
prospective voters have difficulties in
registering in the various centres.
“Some are turned away because the
letters from the kraal head do not have a
date stamp. Honestly, where do we
expect a kraal head to get a date stamp?”
Mavambo’s Chenjerai Gwanzura
added: “The requirement of proof of residence
is also preventing some people
from registering as there are some landlords
who are refusing to sign those
letters proving residency especially if they
know that the tenant supports a
rival political party to theirs.”
ZEC chair, Justice Rita Makarau, said
voter registration was still the
responsibility of the Registrar General’s
office.
“Our voter registration is ward based. This means that all voters
must first
prove by way of documentation. Voter registration is a function
given to the
Registrar General of voters by the electoral law,” she
said.
She however rejected allegations by the MDC-T that the commission’s
secretariat was biased and unprofessional.
The MDC-T has demanded the
reconstitution of the secretariat claiming its
ranks had been massed by
security services personnel with links to Zanu PF.
“This is not the first
time I have heard about (the allegations of bias) but
I invite anyone with
concrete examples of bias to come forward,” Makarau
said.
“It does
not matter whether a person has a military background but if they
are
showing bias there is every reason to leave the organisation.”
Zanu-PF
accuses rival of fiddling with voters roll
http://www.africareview.com/
By KITSEPILE NYATHI in Harare |
Tuesday, April 23 2013 at 14:11
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's Zanu
PF ruling party has accused its
opponents of manipulating the voters roll
ahead of elections he wants held
in June.
Zanu PF, which in the past
has been accused of stuffing the voters register
with names of dead people
and babies to rig elections in their favour,
lodged the complaint with the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
It claimed the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai was
registering people using other people’s houses.
“Our concern is when we
have large numbers of people registering under one
house,” Zanu PF secretary
for security Sydney Sekeremayi told the state
owned Herald newspaper on
Tuesday.
“These are some of the issues we feel distort our voters roll
and want them
addressed."
The Registrar-General’s office, which
compiles the voters roll, has been
accused by opposition parties of
favouring President Mugabe and his party.
The MDC on Tuesday accused the
office of frustrating prospective new voters
by making unreasonable demands
and delaying the registration process.
“In rural areas we have been
confronted with a situation where prospective
voters have difficulties in
registering in the various centres,” said MDC
chairman, Mr Lovemore
Moyo.
“Some are turned away because the letters from the kraal head do
not have a
date stamp. Honestly, where do we expect a kraal head to get a
date stamp?”
The rural areas are considered to be Zanu PF’s strongholds
as the party has
not won in urban areas across the country since the MDC was
formed in 1999.
ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau said the body would
look into the
complaints raised by the parties.
“We are listening to
all those concerns and we hope that in the near future
we will be able to
address the nation at large and the political parties on
the issues,” she
said.
Zimbabwe’s three governing parties are not agreed on the timing of
the
elections to end their coalition but President Mugabe insists they must
be
held by June 29.
ZEC says it has not been allocated enough many to
clean the voters roll.
Last week the electoral body announced that it had
finally removed the name
of Zimbabwe’s last colonial ruler, Ian Douglas
Smith, who died in 2007.
Glen
View 29 trial: Defence prepares application for discharge
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
23 April 2013
The defence team representing 29 MDC-T
supporters accused of murder, on
Tuesday requested a postponement of the
case to allow them to complete a
document to be used to apply for their
clients’ acquittal and discharge.
Lawyer Gift Mtisi said they had
underestimated the amount of work needed for
the combined application after
the state closed its case last month.
At the close of the state case the
defence team had said they would begin
oral submissions for discharge on
Tuesday, but the amount of work involved
meant the team failed to meet its
target.
‘We have to compile the document based on an individual’s
circumstances.
Remember some of our clients were in Glen View during the
commission of the
crime, but nowhere near the scene, while others were not
in Glen View
altogether,’
Mtisi told SW Radio Africa that they were
still working on the application
but remained hopeful they will finish the
job soon. He said this was the
reason they requested a
postponement.
‘As soon as we are done, it may be this week or next week,
we will proceed
with our plans to request the High Court to acquit our
clients on the murder
charge because there is no substance at all to the
allegation,’ Mtisi said.
All the 29 MDC-T activists have pleaded not
guilty to murdering police
inspector, Petros Mutedza two years ago in Glen
View.
In the discharge application, the defence will have to satisfy the
court
that the prosecution team failed to prove their clients’ guilt and
that they
have no case to meet.
‘We remain optimistic despite the
hurdles that we faced along the way that
our application for discharge will
be granted. We have confidence justice
will prevail,’ said Mtisi.
He
said that all the evidence presented in court by state witnesses ‘did not
warrant their clients to be placed on their defence.’
‘There is no
substance at all, evidence against our clients is simply not
there, so they
have no case to answer,’ Mtisi added.
Since it began the trial has been
subject to several deferments, with just
the bail application for the 29
activists postponed more than 7 times,
mainly to allow the state to build
its case.
The 29 activists were arrested in May 2011 when a police
detail, responding
to reports of political disturbances in Harare’s Glen
View area, was
attacked resulting in the death of Inspector
Mutedza.
They have been on remand since then, with five of the accused
still held in
custody where they have been reportedly tortured and
ill-treated.
The five – Last Maengahama, Tungamirai Madzokere, Simon
Mapanzure, Yvonne
Musarurwa and Rebecca Mafukeni – were deemed a flight risk
and remanded in
custody when their colleagues were bailed last year.
Bulawayo
youths’ court appearance postponed
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga Moyo
23 April
2013
On Tuesday the trial of 23 members of a Bulawayo youth lobby group,
who were
arrested earlier this month on allegations of holding an illegal
protest,
was postponed to May 4th.
The youths were picked up by
police on April 8th, while walking to the
offices of national energy
supplier the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority (ZESA) and were slapped
with two charges, with a third charge
added at a later date.
All 23
are part of youth empowerment umbrella group Mthwakazi Youth Leaders
Joint
Resolution, which was formed to represent different youth groups in
the
city.
On the day in question, the youths say they were on their way to
seek
employment at ZESA, after learning that the company had already hired
people
from Kwekwe to work at its Insukamini sub-station located in Nketa
residential suburb.
The activists also intended to hand in a petition
challenging ZESA’s hiring
policy, which they say sidelined unemployed people
from the city in favour
of those from other regions. They said they were
simply calling for
city-based employers to give first preference to local
youths before hiring
from other regions.
However, police intercepted
the group around the Donnington industrial area
and accused them of
demonstrating, in breach of the country’s security laws.
The police further
slapped the group with criminal charges relating to
fanning hatred towards
people of a specific ethnic tribe, which the youths
deny.
Following
their release on bail on April 9th, group spokesman Mqondisi Moyo
told this
station that the youths were ‘walking peacefully and not
protesting’, and
stated that walking in groups is common practice amongst
unemployed
people.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme the
youths said
they were unhappy with the postponement of their case, as it
deprived “them
of a chance to complain about the ill-treatment they received
from the
police”. The youths said their human rights were violated when they
were
locked up at Khami Maximum Prison, instead of being sent to a remand
prison.
Govt
‘happy’ with financially strong Diaspora
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
23 April
2013
The government is said to be ‘happy’ with a Diaspora that continues
remitting millions to Zimbabwe, because of the ongoing weak state of the
national economy.
Recent figures from South Africa have suggested
that roughly $600 million is
being remitted to Zimbabwe annually from the
Diaspora.
These figures are according to South Africa’s First National
Bank, which
recently launched a cellphone-based cash remittance service to
Zimbabwe. The
Bank quotes research it conducted, showing that about 1.9
million
Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa send home an average
of R6.7
billion a year.
Another South African financial services
group, Standard Bank, has said that
it handled more than R1-million in
transfers to Zimbabwe since it launched a
similar money transfer service in
December last year.
There are no official figures from Zimbabwe’s
government about the amount of
formal remittances being channeled to the
national economy. But the figures
do suggest that the economy still relies
on the Diaspora.
South African based economist Luke Zunga said according
to research he had
seen, the remittance figures are closer to R2 billion (or
$200 million) a
year. He told SW Radio Africa that this significant flow of
money was why
the government was not encouraging the Diaspora to return home
en masse.
“There was a Zimbabwe investment conference held in South
Africa (this
month) and one of the addresses was by Deputy Prime Minster
(Arthur)
Mutambara. And he said: ‘We are not encouraging the Diaspora to
come home.
Because once you are back home you are not very valuable. We’d
prefer a
strong Diaspora that will help this country to develop either by
way of
remittances or investment’,” Zunga explained.
He continued:
“So the message we are getting is that the government knows
that the longer
the Diaspora is out there, the better for Zimbabwe,
financially.”
Zunga meanwhile added that Zimbabweans are still
reluctant to return home,
mainly because of the political uncertainty that
still remains there. But he
said people “have a soft spot” for their home
country, and are waiting to
see the political climate changing “to put more
money in their country.”
“Zimbabweans are more effective if they invest
in Zimbabwe but stay where
they are. In the long term Zimbabwe will benefit
from the investment aspect
and not the remittances,” Zunga said.
Muchauraya’s
trial over death threats kicks off in Harare
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
23 April 2013
The MDC-T provincial spokesperson for Manicaland
and Makoni South MP Pishai
Muchauraya appeared in court on Tuesday for the
start of his trial, after he
was charged with making death threats against
his political rival Geoff
Nyarota.
The MP, who is out on $100 bail,
is also accused of threatening to kill
Nyarota’s aunt Sophia Chibayambuya,
who took to the stand as the state’s
first witness. Muchauraya denies both
charges.
Muchauraya and Nyarota are expected to square off in the party
primaries for
the Makoni South constituency that are to be held between the
3rd and 15th
May.
The state has lined up three witnesses. Nyarota is
expected to testify on
Wednesday and will be followed by Godfrey Sanhanga.
In his sworn affidavit
to the police, Nyarota said that on February 28th he
received death threats
from a caller who was using a private number. Nyarota
said he “recognised”
the voice of Muchauraya.
“The caller, who did
not identify himself, said: ‘You are a fool, you are a
big fool.’ He then
hung up the phone. He immediately called again and this
time he said: ‘You
are a big fool. You are sending your people to me. But
you are going to die.
I am going to kill you. I am a killer. Those who know
me are aware that I am
a killer.”
“Then he hung up the phone. I was shocked that a person could
threaten to
kill me like that. I have received warnings from people that I
should be
careful and be wary of Honourable Pishai Muchauraya,” said
Nyarota.
UN
team must drop conditions: Minister
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
22/04/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
JUSTICE Minister Patrick Chinamasa has insisted that the
United Nations fact
finding team would not be allowed in the country unless
it drops conditions
relating to security sector and media
reforms.
The UN dispatched the team on a “needs assessment mission”
before it
considered Zimbabwe’s request for about US$132 million needed to
fund the
polls but Zanu PF has objected to the mission’s demands to meet
with civil
society organisations and various other issues.
Zimbabwe
has since withdrawn the funding request and on Monday Chinamasa
insisted:
"We are prepared to accept any assistance which comes in cash, to
pay and
procure the resources that we need for the elections.
“We already know
our budget, we have an election budget and we know the
items that we need to
procure. The agenda behind this UN visit was basically
to come and reinforce
the MDC argument, and for that reason, they will not
be
acceptable.”
Zanu PF officials also claimed that the UNDP had provided
funding to
“hostile” organisations such as the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (Zesn)
and the Election Resource Centre which was said to be linked
to the MDC-T.
“We want an international order that is fair and democratic
to everybody.
The UNDP is an agent of the UN and its budget does not come
from the UN. It
comes from well-wishers,” said party strategist and former
ambassador to
China, Christopher Mutsvangwa.
“It is being abused by
those well-wishers to serve their interest in a ‘who
is paying the piper
calls the tune’ style. The intention is that of the
funder. We must lodge a
formal complaint with the UN general assembly as
this is the abuse of the UN
charter.
Politburo member Jonathan Moyo added: “Zimbabwe must draw the
attention of
this misconduct to Sadc, the African Union and the UN itself.
Zimbabwe is a
member of the UN.
“There is a rotten apple in the UN
system. It means the UN itself has been
compromised by its local office in
particular and its political office in
general.”
Referring to
allegations the UNDP had been funding Zesn, Moyo said: “It
(Zesn) is also
one of the major NGOs that the UN team was insisting on
consulting.
Insisting on consulting their proxy.
“There is nothing else Zimbabwe
needs to do than withdraw its request (for
election funds) and insist on the
sovereignty and the Constitution to be the
only guiding principle.”
Bar
Council resolves to support Zimbabwean lawyers and promote the independence
of the judiciary
http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/
23 April 2013
The Bar Council, which represents
barristers in England and Wales, has
passed a resolution to support the
right of lawyers in Zimbabwe to practise
freely and fairly, and to promote
the independence of the Zimbabwean
Judiciary.
Maura McGowan
QC,Chairman of the Bar, said:
"Upholding the Rule of Law is crucial to
the proper functioning of a
democratic state and an independent legal
system. It is central to a fair
and free society. We offer our full support
to our colleagues in Zimbabwe
who are forced to practise under severe
restrictions to their professional
freedom, and who live in fear of the
consequences of performing their duties
as lawyers.
"The Bar Council
of England and Wales continues strongly to condemn the
arrest and detention
of the Zimbabwean lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, simply for
acting on behalf of
her client. It also deplores the subsequent charge of
misconduct laid
against the judge who granted her bail.
"We will not stand by and allow
such a contravention of the Rule of Law, and
we offer our full support to
lawyers and judges in Zimbabwe who continue to
fight for a fair and open
justice system."
ZITF
opens today
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Tuesday, 23 April 2013 00:00
Bulawayo
Bureau
The annual Zimbabwe International Trade Fair roars into life today
with a
number of exhibitors late yesterday racing against time to complete
their
stands ahead of the country’s largest trade showcase.
The 54th
edition of the ZITF is running under the theme, “Building Value,
Enhancing
Growth”.
When this news crew visited the Exhibition Centre yesterday
afternoon, some
exhibitors were still erecting their stands.
In
separate interviews workmen contracted by exhibitors expressed optimism
that
by end of day yesterday they would have finished the job.
“We started
erecting the stand yesterday and we hope that by end of day
today we will be
through with our work. As you can see, most people are busy
on their stands
and it is likely that a number of them will finish preparing
the exhibition
stands tomorrow morning,” said Mr Calvin Sekerani who was
working on the
Zimbabwe Manpower Development
Fund stand in Hall 3.
Workmen at other
stands who preferred not to be named said they expected to
complete working
on the stands this morning.
“All I can say is that we have been contracted to
erect the exhibition
stands. We cannot comment any further,” said a workman
whose company was
contracted by Gtel.
A snap survey also established
that even pavilions outside the Halls were
still being worked on
yesterday.
However, some of the pavilions inside and outside the halls had
been
completed. Vehicles carrying products for exhibition were also noticed
entering Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre.
“We are ready for
the trade fair. As you can see some of us have finished
setting up our
products for exhibition,” said an official at a local safari
company
exhibiting in Hall 3.
ZITF Company deputy general manager Mrs Nomathemba
Ndlovu could not be
reached for comment yesterday.
However, in an
interview on Sunday she confirmed that exhibitors at the 54th
edition of the
trade fair started arriving on Friday adding that more were
expected
yesterday.
Among those that arrived last week were those from South Africa’s
Department
of Trade and Industry, China and the Zambia Development
Agency.
Sixteen countries would participate at this year’s trade showcase
with Ghana
coming in as a new entrant while Tanzania is bouncing back after
a few years’
absence.
Last year, 14 countries took part at the
ZITF.
Malawi President Joyce Banda will officially open the trade fair on
Friday
and is expected to tour the stands accompanied by her counterpart
President
Mugabe before the official opening.
Increased
politicization of Grain Loan Scheme
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Hosia Beta
The government grain
loan scheme appear to be a whopping force to reckon as
the nation prepares
for elections later this year in Zaka district, 87 km
south east of Masvingo
town.
The peasantry communities of Jerera area rely mainly on farming and
support
from breadwinners who live in towns. The area provides a wretched
atmosphere
as the sun has scotched their maize fields.
Driving to Jerera,
numerous villagers could be seen along the roads awaiting
transport to carry
their bags of maize from as far as Gutu to combat hunger
hitting the area
hard due to erratic rains this year.
Dealers in Zaka district are taking
advantage of the food situation and a 20
litre bucket of maize costs
$9.
In such difficult situations, villagers look up to the government’s grain
loan scheme for survival.
Realizing the desperation of villagers, some
politicians in Jerera are
hoping to use the scheme to twist the voting
pattern in their favor.
Zanu PF has changed the culture where councilors were
at the forefront of
distributing government aid to villagers preferring the
use of chiefs and
herdsmen.
Zanu PF is taking advantage of Chiefs and
herdsmen who are not elected but
appointed and failure to influence
villagers to vote for Zanu PF results in
them loosing their
positions.
Villagers allege that this is meant to ensure that only Zanu PF
apologists
benefit from the grain loan scheme, scaring and forcing villagers
to support
Zanu PF in the forthcoming elections.
In Zaka rural district
council there are 20 MDC-T councilors and Zanu Pf had
13 of which two passed
away and Zanu PF seeks to regain community support.
Villagers alleged that
some chiefs in Zaka district have intensified their
support for Zanu PF as
elections draw closer with Chief Rangarirai Nhema
approving names of Zanu
PFsupporters in the area to benefit from the
government food aid
scheme.
At times villagers who support other political parties are not
informed that
names are being sent to GMB and would only see the maize being
distributed
to Zanu PF supporters.
“It was very clear to other villagers
that the programme was meant to
benefit Zanu PF members because the names
were secretly written.
“We urge GMB to use the old system where councilors
would distribute food
aid. We know that they would want us to vote for them
and they will write
names and distribute food aid fairly and openly,” said
Imbayarwo an MDC-T
councilor.
Imbayarwo added that councilors would be
fair to everyone because they would
be looking for votes. Hence they seek to
please villagers unlike Chiefs and
Herdsmen who have nothing to lose if they
do not distribute food fairly.
Villagers who spoke to the reporter expressed
disappointment in the way the
government grain loan scheme is being
implemented. They urged the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) to revert to the old
system where councilors were
responsible for distributing food aid.
Flora
Nyamunda, a villager said that Zanu Pf had intensified its strategies
by
ensuring that MDC-T supporters do not benefit from the government grain
loan
scheme.
“A few months ago GMB distributed rice and only well known Zanu PF
supporters managed to access it,” said Nyamunda
“Zanu PF is using chiefs
and herdsmen to control us because they know that
these traditional leaders
have power and can even chase us away if we
disobey them.
“There are,
however, some chiefs and herdsmen who are with us in the
struggle and they
help us in accessing food aid,” said Nyamunda
Imbayarwo argued that the
strategy used in distributing food aid makes it
seem as if only Zanu PF
members are poor in the area.
“The scheme is meant to benefit members of
society facing food challenges
but every time they distribute Zanu PF
members benefit as if they have a
monopoly of hunger and poverty,” said
Imbayarwo.
Efforts to get a comment from GMB where fruitless. They did not
respond to
emails sent to them.
Tough road ahead for Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission's new head
http://www.theafricareport.com/
Posted
on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 15:02
By Frank Chikowore in Harare
Rita
Makarau, the new chair of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has a
formidable
task ahead of her.
The strongest card Supreme Court judge Rita Makarau
can play in her new role
as head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
is that both the main
parties agreed on her appointment.
She is one
of the younger and more dynamic members of the judiciary.
She is not seen
as excessively partisan but she has served as a
non-constituency MP for
President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF).
Daniel Molokele, a former law student taught by her at the
University of
Zimbabwe, described Makarau as "one of the few moderate judges
remaining on
the bench."
The biggest question about her role is the
extent to which she will be able
to stand up to the massive pressures on her
from the political and military
establishment.
Makarau is also
president of the Judicial Service Commission, responsible
for reforming the
judiciary and – on paper – rooting out political
partisanship.
After
a meeting between President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai on
18 February, Makarau emerged as acting chairwoman, her
position to be
reviewed at the end of the year.
After pressure from Tsvangirai, however,
she was given the permanent post on
12 March.
"The principals agreed
that it would be improper to have a temporary
chairperson for such a key
institution as ZEC and that, constitutionally, a
substantive chairperson
enjoys security of tenure which an acting
chairperson does not
have.
Security of tenure of the chairperson and commissioners is critical
to the
independence of ZEC," said Tsvangirai. Makarau replaced Simpson
Mutambanengwe, who resigned from the ZEC in February.
He had taken up
the post in March 2010, two years after Mugabe won a second
round of
elections marred by bloodshed and intimidation. Against that
backdrop,
Makarau's task of organising credible elections will be
formidable.
In the 2008 elections, when the ZEC was chaired by George
Chiweshe, the
results were suppressed for several weeks while senior army
officers decided
on a plan of action.
Chiweshe's legacy is
important.
A dedicated supporter of ZANU-PF, he handpicked the Supreme
Court judges who
were to sit on the Electoral Court. The court can cancel
results because of
rigging, fraud and intimidation, disqualify candidates
and order re-runs.
When the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
asked the court to order
the ZEC to release the 2008 election results, the
judges simply threw out
the application.
Pedzisai Ruhanya, director
of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, doubts that
Makarau will be able to
face down the pressures on the ZEC: "She will be
heading a secretariat that
is militarised. The same secretariat is
responsible for the withholding of
election results in the March 2008 polls.
She will be playing an
oversight role to the same ZEC secretariat that is
full of members of the
Central Intelligence Organisation."
Ruhanya also questions Makarau's
record: "She refused to nullify results of
the 2000 parliamentary elections
in a case involving Saviour Kasukuwere [now
youth, indigenisation and
empowerment minister] ... where allegations of
perpetration of election
violence and rigging against him were glaring."
Yet Tsvangirai's
spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka said his boss is satisfied with
Makarau.
"We cannot go back to the drawing board. The principals have
already agreed
that she will head the electoral commission and it's a done
deal.
"There is expectation from across the political divide that she
will
dispense her duties in a fair and credible manner."
Zimbabwe's
constitution insists that the chair of the ZEC must be a serving
or retired
judge.
Since 1980, all judges have been appointed by Mugabe and are seen
as, at the
least, sympathetic to ZANU-PF.
Unsurprisingly, ZANU-PF
spokesman Rugare Gumbo concludes: "President Mugabe
is satisfied that
justice Makarau can deliver, and there is no way we cannot
trust what our
leader believes in".
Why Zimbabwean voters are deserting Morgan Tsvangirai
The MDC was supposed to trounce Robert Mugabe in upcoming elections, yet
polls show the party is haemorrhaging support
Simukai Tinhu for African Arguments, part of the Guardian Africa
Network
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 April 2013 13.45 BST
Morgan Tsvangirai, left, has seen his MDC lose ground to Robert
Mugabe, right. Photograph: Reuters
Fourteen years
ago, the Movement for Democratic Change launched itself onto the scene as Zimbabwe's main opposition
party with great local and international fanfare. The MDC gave rise to a new
understanding of Zimbabwean politics, which sought to explain the vulnerability
of President Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
Not since independence from British rule in 1980, had an opposition party played
such a significant role in the nation's politics.
For the first
time, Zanu-PF went on to
lose a majority in parliament, and its
octogenarian leader was relegated to second place after being beaten by
MDC's Morgan
Tsvangirai in the first round of the 2008 presidential
elections. Many Zimbabweans predicted that the MDC juggernaut would sweep to
victory in the next elections, scheduled to take place at the end of the
current coalition
government.
But recent voter
surveys, (notably Afrobarometer and Freedom
House) and some not-so-well-attended MDC political rallies (in
comparison to 2002 and 2008 election campaigns), suggest the MDC may have
indulged in undue optimism. Indeed, the words "MDC" and "lose" are being flung
around liberally these days by both local and international
analysts.
Why is the MDC losing
support?
One suggestion is that,
with MDC politicians being caught up in corruption scandals while in government,
some voters doubt the party's ability to run the country differently from
Zanu-PF. Another is that Zanu-PF's populist policies, such as the campaign for
the indigenisation of foreign-owned companies, have won sympathy from many
Zimbabweans, who are largely unemployed. The MDC's opposition to this policy has
also been used by Zanu-PF to suggest that Tsvangirai's party is against black
empowerment.
In addition, the
improved performance of the Zimbabwean economy, in comparison to the period
prior to the formation of the coalition government in 2008, has been a double
edged sword for the MDC. Tsvangirai's party has claimed that, with the finance
and industry ministries in its hands, it has successfully transformed the
economy from an inflationary nightmare to one that has consistently recorded
growth, following years of Zanu-PF's mismanagement and the land grab
policythat destroyed the agriculture sector (formerly the backbone of
the economy). However, restoring the economic fortunes of the country has led to
the end of the worst food shortages and hyperinflation, meaning that the
previously successful message on the need to fix the economy holds less
weight.
Lastly, it
appears the opposition has been unable to counter attacks on the character of
its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. Zanu-PF has successfully turned nasty rumours
into political currency, damaging Tsvangirai's political fortunes. His messy romantic
life has been criticised, and he has been
caricatured as indecisive, leading many Zimbabweans to doubt his sincerity and
capacity to lead the country.
Even core voters desert
MDC
This goes some way to
explain why Zimbabweans in general are deserting the MDC, but not its core
supporters. The majority of the party's votes have traditionally come from urban
areas and the Matabeleland and Midlands regions. Why is it that the attitudes of
voters from these areas have changed recently?
Within the last five
years, there has been a mushrooming of urban based Pentecostal churches that
target young urbanites. These groups have traditionally been the core of the MDC
support. Whereas 10 years ago, the MDC had the capacity to attract 60,000 young
urban dwellers to a political rally, today it is the Pentecostal church leaders
who get the crowds.
Led by the likes of the
charismatic Emmanuel Makandiwa and Hubert Angel, these churches are apathetic
about politics and have a tendency towards puritanism. It is not surprising that
a promiscuous presidential aspirant will have little chance in winning votes
among young born-again believers.
Zanu-PF has also seized
on a heightened anti-western mood to intensify its portrayal of Tsvangirai as a
front for neo-colonialists. Buoyed by the "Africa Rising"
narrative, this message appears to be resonating with mostly young and educated
Africans, and Zimbabweans are no exception. Judging from the two most recent
elections in Africa; Kenya and Zambia, where Uhuru
Kenyatta and Michael
Sata ran campaigns based on sustained
anti-western rhetoric, the MDC might need to devise a strategy to guard itself
against being portrayed as its stooges.
The MDC's
alienation of voters from the Mateleland and the Midlands regions appear to have
been shaped by a number of factors. First, residents say they are dissatisfied
with the party's failure to decentralise the state, both politically and
constitutionally. Second the voters, who are predominantly Ndebele speaking,
have accused Tsvangirai of not doing enough to ensure that the violence of Gukurahundi, where an estimated 20,000 civilians
were allegedly killed by the state, is resolved or at least kept in the
limelight. Third, some of Tsvangirai's personal behaviour, such as impregnating
a 23-year-old girl from Matebeleland, initially denying responsibility and then
admitting that he was the father, seems to have helped reverse inroads that the
party had made in this constituency in the last 10 years.
Finally, the
Matebeleland and Midlands regions have become targets of competition by the
resurrected Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu-PF), a party once led by
Joshua Nkomo before he was forced into a political union with Zanu-PF, and the
smaller MDC formation led by Welshman Ncube, crowding the MDC in the
process.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF has
its problems too
There are a number of
problems within Zanu-PF which the MDC should use to increase its leverage and
electoral punch. Most important is Mugabe's age and health, which remain
something of a liability for the party. It will be interesting to see how much
campaigning Mugabe will be capable of in the run-up to the elections. The
younger Tsvangirai should be able to use this opportunity to outdo Mugabe on the
campaign trail.
Until recently, it was
difficult to deny that Zanu-PF had a disproportionate advantage over the
nation's most precious resource; talented politicians, who have masterminded
Zanu-PF's stranglehold on Zimbabwean politics since 1980. However, some of these
leaders have either recently died (Mujuru; Mudenge) or are now old and frail
(Shamhuyarira; Murerwa, amongst others) or have deserted the party (Makoni;
Dabengwa). Those who have remained have either been thoroughly discredited
(Mahoso; Moyo), or fatigued and have withdrawn to the backstage of
politics.
What are the options
for the MDC?
There are three
possible options for the MDC. The first is to join a "coalition of the
opposition" with Zapu-PF and the smaller MDC faction, which would have a chance
at retaining votes from the Matabeleland and the Midlands. However, this might
be problematic given the enmity that exists between Tsvangirai and
Ncube.
The second is to scale
back its ambitions and be realistic about what the party can achieve. The MDC
must decide if it wants the presidency or a majority in parliament, or both. The
reality is that winning the presidency now seems a very difficult task,
considering Tsvangirai's tainted leadership. Indeed, based on recent surveys,
his chances are much slimmer than in the last two elections. This leaves the MDC
with one option; recapturing the majority in parliament, this time with a much
wider margin that will give it a shot at pushing for reformist legislation. It
seems the party will have to wait for Tsvangirai's svengali, Tendai Biti –
probably a more capable leader – to take over if they want to win presidency
too.
The third is simply to
ignore the polls, which is what the MDC seems to have done so far, based on the
premise that they are generally wrong.
The demise of
authoritarianism in Zimbabwe will surely come. But there is little reason to
think that the day is near, and even less to think that the opposition MDC is
the party that will torpedo the current dictatorship. Today the party is more
dysfunctional and commands less authority and support than ever before, and it
shouldn't come as a surprise when it loses, even in a free and fair
election.
Simukai Tinhu recently
graduated from the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in African
Studies
National Geo Trains Elephant Gun on Mugabe's Tyranny
4/23/2013
Inside the May
issue of National Geographic, with its cover happily anticipating new frontiers
of human aging, is a surprisingly blunt assessment of a country where idealism dies
young: Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
The piece is by
Alexandra Fuller, a Briton now living in Wyoming but raised in Africa, including
the turf haunted by Mugabe’s thuggish rule. Fuller has written affectingly
elsewhere of her
family ties to what was Rhodesia, but here she takes direct aim at its current
repression. Especially in her sights are the systematic rape and intimidation
practices of the ruler’s Zanu-PF party leadership and its bands of
decommissioned military and male youth. Even as some economic policies of the
weak partner party in Zimbabwe’s recent forced-coalition government have
restored functioning commerce in a few cities, the countryside is a tale of
wreckage from 33 years of misrule since “liberation.” As you’d expect from
National Geo, ample photography by Robin Hammond–from a five-month stay in the
nation–underscores the point.
The point-blank
critique of Mugabe’s handiwork (“Breaking the Silence”) appears at an
interesting moment for the magazine. It was itself just the subject of a review in the New Yorker that combined wry
sentimentality with plenty of Eustace Tilley-like archness, especially over the
famously yellow-framed publication’s “racist” colonial-mindset past. Fuller’s
was a white farm household in an era of Ian Smith’s minority Rhodesian rule, and however much she divorces herself from that spectre and
focuses now on the very black victims of what has followed, this won’t spare her
or her editors from the lash of 89-year-old Mugabe’s remaining apologists on
the left. Fortunately, those have grown fewer over the years of his tyranny. As
the article notes, he was chosen the world’s second worst dictator (behind Kim
Jong-il) in 2010 by Foreign Policy magazine–and in fact finished “first” in a later straw poll by
forbes.com.
If less-afflicted
areas of sub-Saharan Africa are now heralded as emerging growth markets by
economists and investors, the continent retains more than its share of
tormentors. That ought to make all the more urgent (if the suffering of
innocents is not itself enough) that civilized parties demand attention on the
remaining outliers. How about an indictment by the International Criminal Court
in the Hague? And shame on those governments, such as China, that still lend
Mugabe aid and comfort?
Credit National
Geographic for reminding, or even alerting, its sometimes apolitical audience of
just what lingers in a land that could be such a place of
beauty.
Press
Statement by the Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Theresa Makone
http://www.mdc.co.zw
Tuesday 23
April 2013
Policy on civic registration of citizens in
Zimbabwe
Following complaints raised by colleague ministers and responses
proffered
by the office of the Registrar General, it was clear that there is
need for
the ministers of Home Affairs to come up with clear policy
guidelines.
It is important to state from the outset that issues raised
by Cabinet are
not new. It is surprising that complaints reach a crescendo
towards
elections for obvious reasons.
The main issues raised
included among others;
Availability of birth certificates,
Replacement
of lost identity documents,
Length of queues at the Registrar’s
offices,
Acceptability of downloaded passport forms,
Cost of
passports,
Cost of the voters’ roll,
Registration of women who are removed
from their areas of birth by marriage,
Registration of persons in their new
places of residence,
Registration of aliens on the voters’ roll,
Attitude
displayed by staff towards the public,
Today, the 23rd of April, Cabinet
has agreed on the following:
1. Availability of Birth
Certificates
Babies born at clinics should be availed with birth
certificates
immediately.
Babies born at home should be issued
birth certificates as soon as
practically possible at the nearest office of
the registrar.
Where loss of the birth certificate is as a result of
burning down of the
homestead, theft or deliberate acts of
disenfranchisement, a person will
have these replaced free of charge because
the causes of loss are beyond the
control of the individual, and therefore
the persons cannot suffer double
jeopardy. Confirmation of the loss is by
way of police records of local
leadership.
Those who misplace
their documents should have these replaced at cost.
2. Replacement
of lost ID’s
Identity documents lost as a result of regular misplacement
shall be
replaced at cost and shall not exceed $5.
Documents lost
through arson, or forcible removal from owner in order to
disenfranchise
shall be replaced free of charge.
Further, prior to the harmonised
elections of 2013, all identity documents
shall be availed to citizens, free
of charge, for a period up to the closing
of the roll. At the same time,
those who are not on the voters’ roll can be
automatically entered on
it.
3. Length of queues at the Office of the Registrar
A
structure be put in place at the main entrance of the Registrar’s offices.
There shall be a commissioner there who will direct the public to the
offices that they wish to visit.
This way, long queues seen by
passer-by that have individuals wanting
different services as well as those
visiting other ministries will be a
thing of the past.
This
arrangement will eliminate touts who give numbers to people in the
queues
for a fee.
4. Acceptability of downloaded internet passport
forms
Passport forms that are downloaded from the Registrar’s website,
shall be
accepted by the office of the registrar with immediate
effect.
Officers that refuse to accept these forms must be reported
to their
superiors.
5. Cost of passports
There has been a
general complaint that only passports priced at $300 were
being processed,
and none at $50.
With immediate effect, there shall be two separate
windows for passport
applications, one for urgent passports and another for
ordinary passports.
The ordinary passport shall be issued no later
than four weeks from the date
of submission.
6. Cost of voters’
roll
With immediate effect the voters’ roll should be issued in an
electronic
format to stakeholders.
If required in printed form, the
voters’ roll should be pegged at $5 000 per
copy.
7. Registration
of married women voters
Women voters who find themselves removed from
their original birthplaces
will be registered in their new places of
residence upon authentication by
husband, husband’s relatives, their own
children, neighbours, elderly people
and or traditional leaders. Their
identity details can be located on the
Registrar’s system by giving details
of origin.
8. Registration of voters in new constituencies
With
immediate effect, all voters should be facilitated to change their
address
once, from their old to their new residential addresses. No one
should be
required to travel to their old places of residence to effect this
change.
9. Registration of aliens on the voters’ roll
The
current law allows aliens to register as voters right away. If one is
born
in Zimbabwe, or if either parent is Zimbabwean, they automatically are
Zimbabwean.
Aliens with alien IDs but who qualify as voters must
have these swapped for
citizen IDs.
The registration slips that
they are given now, will be presented together
with IDs for voting purposes,
even if their names do not appear on the final
voters’ roll.
10.
Attitude displayed by the Registrar General’s staff towards the
public
The issue of touts is dealt with by having a facility at the
entrance where
people are told where to go to have their issues addressed.
A concerted
effort to have staff trained in public etiquette is going to
be organised by
the ministry and the office of the RG. In the meantime,
staff will be
reminded to apply the African Ubuntu towards the public, who
are after all
their masters.
I thank you!!!
Zimbabwe’s Beatrice Mtetwa,
arrested but not stopped
“All countries are ruled by men and
women,” Jonathan Moyo tells filmmaker Lorie Conway, “and the law becomes what
they say it is.” Mtetwa agrees, in a way: “Unlike a lot of other dictators,
Robert Mugabe doesn’t just go out and do what he wants,” she says in the film,
‘Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law.’ “He first goes to parliament and passes a
law and says it’s now legal to punch somebody in the nose.”
For the same three decades that
Mugabe has been doing that with such impunity, Mtetwa has been trying to use the
constitution to defend people such as peace activist Jestina Mukoko, who was
detained and tortured for 89 days in ’08. Or like Andrew Meldrum, the last
resident foreign correspondent in Zimbabwe, arrested for practicing journalism,
essentially, then thrown in a car with a hood over his head and deported
straight from the courtroom where he’d been found not guilty of any
crime.
Again, it’s Moyo, a member of
Parliament from Mugabe’s ruling party, who confirms that there’s no real freedom
of speech in Zimbabwe when he explains the expulsion of Meldrum, who wrote for
the Economist and the Guardian during his 23 years in the country, and is now
with the AP in South Africa:
“If journalists and especially
their governments become hostile to our country and declare that they will use
the media to pursue that hostility toward our country, then we have a right to
stop those people,” he says in the movie. “They can write whatever nonsense they
want to write outside our borders.”
Mtetwa herself was arrested last
month and charged with obstruction of justice when she asked police searching a
client’s home to produce a warrant. They let her go after eight days, and her
trial, originally scheduled for May, has been delayed.
On Tuesday, she was scheduled to
fly to Washington, D.C., for a Thursday showing of the film at the U.S. Institute
for Peace. When I spoke to her on the phone as she was packing, she said she was
not too afraid during this most recent incarceration:
“One evening I was scared, when
there were some police officers visiting us in the night, claiming they needed
some blankets for some other women; there was fear of some mischief,” said
Mtetwa, who was beaten during her 2003 arrest. “But everybody knew I was inside,
and I was not really afraid; it was just an inconvenience to spend eight days
cooling your heels.”
Her arrest was widely seen as a
crackdown ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for this summer. The
last time Mugabe stood for reelection, in ’08, opposition supporters were raped,
kidnapped and killed, and the result effectively voided. This time, she says,
she’s hopeful that international pressure and observers will prevent violence,
though it’s hard to understand where that optimism comes from.
Here in Cambridge, where I saw a
screening of the film at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center last
week, it’s hard to think beyond the pain inflicted here by the marathon bombers.
But even through that prism, I invite those who saw the FBI’s initial decision
not to read 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights as evidence
that we live in a “police state” to see this movie for some
perspective.
There’s also some solace for me in
the movie as I keep trying to figure out how the younger Tsnarnaev, who was so
widely loved at the high school my son now attends, could have wound up accused
of using a weapon of mass destruction, then partying and working out like
nothing had happened.
Mtetwa, after all, is just as
mysterious and powerful a force for good. The oldest daughter of a man with six
wives and more than 50 children, she seized on the encouragement of one teacher
who told her she had some potential, and she never let go.
One of Dzhokhar’s mentors, a high
school wrestling coach, has told reporters that he’s broken-hearted to think
that the boy he was so fond of had used all the care and guidance he tried to
give him as a weapon against us all.
But there, too, Beatrice did just
the opposite, and turned all the hardship in her own life into the determination
to protect the defenseless. “In my entire life, I had to deal with imposing,
difficult males, starting with my father,” she says in the movie. “Despite him
being physical when we didn’t agree, I never actually stopped challenging
him.”
When I asked whether she feared not
being allowed back in the country after her trip to Washington, she didn’t
really say: “Legally, I haven’t done anything wrong, but who cares about the
law?” The answer, of course, is obvious: “This has to be done,” she says of her
work, in the last line of the movie. “Somebody’s got to do it, and why shouldn’t
it be you?”
Melinda Henneberger is a Post
political reporter and anchors She the People. Follow her on Twitter at
MelindaDC.
Going south
Apr 23rd 2013, 10:29 by C.S. | HARARE
TWO ageing Boeing 767s bathe in the baking sun at Harare International
Airport. They belong to Air Zimbabwe, the country’s moribund airline, which
suspended operations last summer over fears that the aircraft would be impounded
by creditors if they ever touched down abroad. Elsewhere in Southern Africa,
government-controlled carriers are in a similarly parlous state: Zambian Airways
went bankrupt in 2009; Air Malawi lacks the foreign partner it needs to survive;
and South African Airways, a wounded giant, remains listless following the
recent appointment of its fourth chief executive in six months.
The chaos is bad news for customer choice in the region. Zambia and
Zimbabwe have no airlines of their own, leaving incoming traffic at the mercy of
foreign airlines’ fickle business plans. Lossmaking South African Airways axed
one of its two routes to London last summer. Worse, the region’s protectionist
governments have thrown up barriers against each other’s airlines. Bizarrely,
Zambia’s politicians boast that they have pre-emptively protected a new national
carrier that does not actually exist yet, and in which they do not want to
invest.
With fewer regional players, average fares have risen by 24% in two years,
thanks in part to rising fuel costs and hefty take-off taxes. Tour operators are
dismayed, fearing that hitherto small declines in tourist numbers will
accelerate into total collapse. Many are sceptical that Air Zimbabwe will
deliver on promises to resume services to London this summer. Safari companies
were outraged when, in the space of five days earlier this month, Air Botswana
axed and then reinstated two popular tourist routes, forcing the cancellation of
around 2,000 holidays.
Tourism is not the only industry to suffer. Southern Africa is enjoying a
commodities boom, and the governments of Mozambique and Namibia hope that the
oil and gas discovered off their coasts will deliver economic growth to match
that of newly oil-rich Angola. But progress will be stymied without the air
connectivity on which international commodity businesses and their suppliers
depend. This is especially true of landlocked countries like Zambia and
Zimbabwe, which cannot ship in equipment on a just-in-time basis.
For now, foreign airlines are plugging the biggest holes in southern
Africa’s airline network, and enjoying a virtual monopoly on long-haul routes to
Europe and the Gulf. Qatar Airways now flies to Mozambique; Emirates has added
extra services to Zambia; and British Airways has returned to Zimbabwe after a
10-year absence. But the paucity of local supply is obvious: despite operating
only three flights a week to Lusaka, British Airways is still among the five
biggest airlines in Zambia by seat capacity.
Denser route networks are essential. But these would require southern
Africa’s politicians to encourage private investment in local airlines,
something that will only happen once they stop meddling in airlines’ commercial
affairs. Malawi’s miserable efforts to privatise its ailing national carrier,
now in their 11th year, are a case in point: few private investors seem
confident that their money will buy full managerial autonomy. Even in the
relatively liberalised South African market, privately owned operators like
Comair complain that the government’s $540m subsidy of South African Airways has
created an uneven playing field and scared start-ups away.
FastJet, a Tanzanian airline part-owned by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the
founder of easyJet, is ploughing on regardless. The company hopes to receive
government approval for the takeover of two defunct rivals, and then to expand
throughout southern Africa. For this strategy to work, the region’s governments
will have to abandon protectionism and open their airports to all comers, both
foreign and domestic. Politicians need to respond positively and quickly if they
want to support business and tourism in this airline graveyard.