Source: SOUTHERN NEWS | Khupe must be disciplined: Cross – DailyNews Live
Jeffrey Muvundusi 28 February 2018
BULAWAYO – Outspoken MDC legislator Eddie Cross has warned that the
party’s vice president Thokozani Khupe is likely to face disciplinary
action if she continues to oppose Nelson Chamisa, who was recently
endorsed as the party’s acting president.
Khupe is at loggerheads with pro-Chamisa officials in the MDC over the
opposition party’s leadership, and has since declared that she will not
recognise his ascendency to power, declaring herself the acting president
by virtue of being the only elected vice president unlike Chamisa and his
counterpart Elias Mudzuri, who were both appointed by the late Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Cross – also MDC policy coordinator general – told Southern News that it
was clear Khupe was fighting a losing battle, hence she needed to reform
for the purposes of unity in the party.
“The support for Chamisa is overwhelming,” he said.
“That is over. If Khupe persists she may be disciplined or lose her
membership. All other leaders have accepted the inevitable,” Cross said.
The Bulawayo South MP dismissed the notion that the current leadership
squabbles in the party will have an effect on the electorate come election
time.
“It only affects the standing committee, at the grass roots there is
almost complete support,” he said.
Cross also dismissed another widely held belief that Khupe was influential
in the Matabeleland region, hence there was need to treat her issue with
care.
“That is nonsense – she (Khupe) is delusional,” Cross curtly said.
Turning to the forthcoming election, Cross said President Emmerson
Mnangagwa will face a tough election opponent in the name of Chamisa.
He said Mnangagwa has to fulfil his promises he made to the people upon
his inauguration or risk facing a humiliating defeat.
“I think ED (Mnangagwa) has a real battle on his hands and will struggle
against Chamisa. An upset is very possible especially if ED is unable to
deliver.”
Cross has a reputation of being open-minded and forthright, which has
earned him friends and foes alike.
Last year, he escaped disciplinary action by a whisker after he openly
spoke about Tsvangirai’s health, which conservative members of the MDC
felt was too intrusive.
Efforts to get Khupe’s comment were unsuccessful as her personal
assistant, Witness Dube, did not respond to messages.
Donkey abattoir: An investment that never was
LAST October, the news of a donkey abattoir opening here sent tongues
wagging and elicited mixed feelings from a cross-section of society.
It sounded bizarre to Zimbabweans, to whom donkey meat is taboo and could
never make it to the plate.
While a few seemed to support the idea, many, including animal welfare
groups and culturists, were fiercely against it.
It’s unheard of, they argued.
Two major fears were outstanding from those who frowned against the idea –
the possibility of donkey meat permeating into local butcheries and the
likelihood of an increase in donkey thefts.
So deafening was the noise in reaction to the initiative.
Not only did it attract the attention of politicians but the international
community too.
But four months down the line, the noise and the anxiety about the donkey
slaughtering business – spearheaded by Battlefront Investments located in
Manningdale in Umguza district – seems to have died down.
Not many are still talking about the matter on the streets of Bulawayo, as
had become the case during the days when the news broke out.
The government and other concerned stakeholders have apparently stalled
work at the much-publicised abattoir.
Since the abattoir was built, the owner, Gareth Lumsden, has bought a
number of donkeys, on stand-by for slaughter as soon as a licence was
secured.
The donkeys had reportedly been bought from surrounding areas of
Tsholotsho, Nkayi and Kezi, among others.
Last December, the department of Livestock and Veterinary Services (DLVS)
made the announcement that the Zimbabwe National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said it had put down over 10
donkeys that were facing the guillotine at the facility.
Bulawayo SPCA veterinary surgeon Anele Dube noted that the donkeys, which
were being kept at a feedlot at Manningdale, were killed after the animal
welfare organisation realised they were in a bad health state.
This followed a visit by the SPCA and Veterinarians for Animal Welfare
Zimbabwe (VAWZ) officials who recommended that the animals be euthanised.
After visiting the abattoir this week, Southern News witnessed a sorry
sight of the project that seemed abandoned.
Hopeless as it might have looked, the project owner, however, remains
confident that things will turn around.
But if anything, he admits that politics have dealt a major blow to his
project.
“It’s all political,” says Lumsden, as he refuses to grant this paper an
interview.
“There are too many parties involved. But for now, I will reserve my
comments. I will speak at the right time. I will call you guys for a press
conference at the right time,” he said grudgingly.
From the short conversation, it could be sensed that Lumsden is a man who
now has developed a strong mistrust of journalists following reportage
about him and his project.
It was clear he blames the media for having a hand in suffocating his
dream. A successful farmer and businessman, Lumsden is no newcomer in the
slaughtering business.
He also runs a goat and sheep abattoir.
During the visit, the Southern News crew, found all donkey pens empty, but
a quick inquiry from some farm workers indicated that only 25 donkeys
which had been taken out for grazing at the nearby grazing land are
currently being kept.
After setting up the donkey abattoir, the company intended to export the
meat and hides to China where they are in high demand, especially the
latter, which is used to produce a traditional Chinese product called
ejiao.
The company had already started building the $150 000 state-of-the-art
donkey abattoir, with capacity to dress more than 70 animals daily.
The opening of the abattoir in the city was meant to take advantage of the
closure of the donkey abattoir in neighbouring Botswana, where donkey meat
is a delicacy.
Botswana suspended export licences for the animal products mid last year
after villagers had complained that they were losing their donkeys to
thieves who were cashing in on the animals.
Fight over 105-year shop lease
A HILLSIDE businessman – Marshal Joseph Stuart – who was awarded a
105-year lease for a shop is embroiled in a fierce battle with his
landlord who is frantically trying to evict him regardless of the
agreement.
Stuart has been entangled in a battle with shop owner Elexandros Maroukis
for the past 19 years.
The shop, which is part of the double storey Old Mutual building owned by
Maroukis, is situated at the Hillside Shopping Centre in Bulawayo.
So nasty has been the dispute that on several occasions the matter has
been in and out of the courts ostensibly because Maroukis has been
withdrawing the case before full trial.
Last week, Maroukis revived the court battle to take over the shop, which
Stuart has turned into a clothing outlet over the years.
Recently, Stuart – a man of mixed race – expressed pain at how his
landlord has been behaving in the past decade, accusing him of trying to
evict him to make way for a white tenant.
“I occupied the shop in 2006, when everybody including the white community
was abandoning this business complex due to economic challenges,” Stuart
told Southern News.
“But I remained steadfast and pulled through and that’s when Maroukis
offered me a 105-year lease for this shop. It’s something that is on
record, we both signed and made an agreement and the original copy is with
the lawyers,” he said.
But Maroukis has starkly turned against Stuart, accusing him of forging
the bizarrely long lease. This has become his basis in the latest court
application.
According to a July, 17, 2012 letter by Stuart’s lawyers – Majoko and
Majoko Legal Practitioners – to Maroukis, the lease runs up to 2112.
“By lease agreement entered into on the March 21, 2007, you leased out and
our client took on lease the premises above mentioned. The lease was to
terminate on the April 1, 2112.”
“Surprisingly, through your agents Ken Estate Agents, you denied there was
a lease and suggested that if our client produced one it was a forgery.
The allegation was malicious, scandalous and defamatory of our client…,”
reads the letter in part.
The lawyers also declared that Stuart was not vacating the shop.
“Our client will not vacate the shop for as long as he requires its use
and observes the terms of the lease.”
In his response, Maroukis questioned the authenticity of the lease.
“You shall undoubtedly note that on the mentioned lease all numerical 2’s
are almost identical yet the latter being the 105-year extension seems to
be completely different to all others,” Maroukis argued.
“Does this not pose a question with respect to its authenticity? I put it
to you that it appears to be an addition to the contract and did not form
part of the so-called agreement,” he queried.
However, as part of forcing Stuart out of the premises, Maroukis has
allegedly been using a “scotched earth policy”.
“The shop is now in bad shape but the owner has warned me against
renovating it. He blocked the water supply, there is no electricity and I
don’t even have electricity. The roof is leaking when it’s raining.
“He even tried to double the rentals but I refused since there was no
justification. All these have been clear tactics to move me out of this
place but I told him that I can’t move away, I have a long running lease,”
Stuart said.
“The reason why he keeps renewing court cases that he never pursues is
that they want to suffocate me financially.
Dark cloud as Gukurahundi victims are remembered
WHILE there was bliss after police cleared the memorial of Gukurahundi
victims, there was palpable grief as dozens of aggrieved family members
gathered for the event at Bhalagwe, Matabeleland South.
Bhalagwe is known as the place where thousands of innocent civilians were
thrown into an abandoned mine shaft at the height of the internationally
condemned post-independence atrocity, which human rights groups estimate
it claimed more than 20 000 lives.
For radical pressure group, Ibhetshu Likazulu, it was a second return at
the place after the first attempt in October last year was blocked by riot
police under deposed president Robert Mugabe’s rule.
This time, the group organised the event to coincide with Mugabe’s
birthday, as part of expressing their disdain to the person seen as the
Gukurahundi architect.
While speaker after speaker spoke agonisingly of the sad past, villagers
who were also part of the meeting could not hide their anguish at the way
the Zanu PF government has disregarded them, despite all the persecution
they went through during and after the atrocities.
One elderly Nicholas Dube took a swipe at Zanu PF for declaring Bhalagwe a
district heroes acre, which he said it further showed lack of remorse for
the mass killings.
“Now they have made this place where the bones of our people are buried in
shallow graves their heroes acre, they want to exterminate history that
all our children remember will be their heroes lying here not our fellow
countrymen that were massacred,” Dube said.
Notably, at that place which has been turned into a heroes’ acre there are
two mass graves, where reburials are said to have been done years back.
It is, however, the failure by those who built the huge tomb to indicate
that it was a Gukurahundi mass grave that seemed to irk the organisers of
the commemoration.
Only the words “Mass Grave” are inscribed on the tomb.
Dube went on to say it should not be forgotten that the purpose of
Gukurahundi was not only to eliminate lives but the culture of the region
as the two camps that were set in Bhalagwe by the North Korea-trained
Fifth brigade were built on the territory that was preserved for
rainmaking ceremonies and religious rituals by the community.
As part of the commemorations, candles were lit while they sang the old
national anthem Nkosi sikelela, and prayers made after which solidarity
speeches were made.
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