Associated Press
Aug 24, 2:18 PM EDT
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- A new wave of land
takeovers and hunting licenses
granted to loyalists of President Robert
Mugabe is threatening a massive
wildlife preserve in southeastern Zimbabwe,
a consortium of wildlife
ranchers charged Friday.
The Save Valley
Conservancy group said the takeovers, labeled as black
empowerment,
benefitted "a few greedy individuals who care only for what
they can take
for themselves" with no interest in protecting an array of
endangered
wildlife - including the rhinoceros
The conservancy of about 1,000 square
miles (2,600 square kilometers) is
unsuitable for anything but wildlife
tourism, the group said.
It said two thirds of its small-scale wildlife
ranch operators are already
black Zimbabweans, but land and hunting
concessions given to 25 `'connected
political individuals" are set to
destabilize the region's whole ecosystem.
Save (pronounced Sa-veh) is
named after the river running through it, is the
habitat with an abundance
of elephant, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest and eland,
as well as the nation's
second largest population of black rhino and most
species African lowland
animals and birds. The conservancy runs breeding
programs, internationally
recognized research on rare mottled or "painted"
wild dogs and photographic
and hunting trips.
The group said in a statement to The Associated Press
on Friday that its own
commercial hunting licenses were cancelled, depriving
them of much needed
income, while leading politicians of Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party in the southern
Masvingo province, who had no past relationship with
conservancy members
were "miraculously" allocated land and hunting licenses
last month.
They include Mugabe's minister of higher education Stan
Mudenge, provincial
governor Titus Maluleke and a ZANU -PF militant and
former lawmaker, Mrs.
Shuvai Mahofa. The conservancy said she is officially
listed as having
received nine farms under the often violent seizures of
white owned farms
that began in 2000 and has ignored two court orders to
vacate a property she
has occupied illegally on the
conservancy.
Witnesses said at Mudenge's recent remarriage, guests
feasted largely on the
game meat of wild animals.
Maluleke, however,
has accused white wildlife ranchers of resisting what is
termed a
wildlife-based land reform program that calls on them to go into
partnership
with blacks in wildlife and animal husbandry projects. No
further comment
was immediately available from Mugabe's party.
Mugabe insists the land
takeovers are to correct colonial era imbalances in
farm ownership that gave
whites most prime land. But critics say many of the
best farms have gone to
Mugabe cronies since 2000 and still lie idle.
The Save Conservancy was
founded in 1991 and has drawn support from the
World Wildlife Fund and
investors from Europe and United States who are
protected under bilateral
investment agreements with the countries involved.
The group said Friday
its breeding and conservation successes put it in a
position to help restock
other nature preserves across the nation suffering
from poaching and a lack
of finances in Zimbabwe's troubled economy.
It also set up a community
trust to channel earnings from its operations
into five neighboring rural
districts, supporting thousands of villagers and
employing at least 800
workers in the conservancy.
The group said the takeovers pose legal and
diplomatic repercussions that go
well beyond stifling members' earnings and
crippling the conservancy's
conservation efforts before the United Nations
World Tourism Organization
summit to be held in Zimbabwe next
year.
It alleged politicians and Mugabe loyalists were shielding behind
racial
differences over black empowerment as a "cover for
greed."
"Let's end the madness of a few. We cannot host a global tourism
conference
and on the other hand destroy one of Zimbabwe's tourism jewels
because a few
want to lay their hands on the treasure," said Willy Pabst,
deputy head of
the conservancy consortium.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai Karimakwenda
24 August 2012
All
eyes are focused on an extra-ordinary meeting of the ZANU PF politburo
taking place this weekend, to discuss the way forward following the
rejection of their amended draft constitution by the MDC
formations.
According to the state controlled Herald newspaper, the
politburo will also
tackle the issue of by-elections that are pending in
over 38 constituencies,
where vacancies exist due to deaths or expulsion of
legislators that have
occurred since 2008.
Robert Mugabe is faced
with a deadline imposed by the Supreme Court last
month, in a ruling that
focused on 3 constituencies and stipulated that he
must call for
by-elections by next Friday. Former legislators in the 3
constituencies had
approached the courts for recourse after losing positions
within their
political parties.
Some observers have expressed concern that if Mugabe
and the politburo call
for the by-elections next week, attention would shift
away from the
constitutional process that should be completed before
elections can be
held.
Law expert Madock Chivasa from the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
told SW Radio Africa the MDC formations will
have a hard time refusing to
renegotiate ZANU PF’s amended draft charter,
because the process guiding the
exercise is a parliamentary process which
stipulates that they must
negotiate.
Chivasa said the MDC formations
should instead use the opportunity to
correct the damage they inflicted on
their political credibility, when they
compromised too far on crucial issues
to get agreement from ZANU PF.
“Zimbabweans are now clear that
parliamentarians negotiated and forgot what
the people wanted, like the
Diaspora vote and a president without too much
power. This is a chance to
negotiate these issues back into the charter,”
Chivasa
explained.
Regarding the by-elections, Chivasa said Zimbabweans want to
get the next
general election over with and move ahead with their lives. He
added that
results from the by-elections would influence parliamentary
voting for just
a few months until the general elections bring in a more
permanent crop of
legislators.
The Herald quotes ZANU PF spokesperson
Rugare Gumbo as saying the country
might have to revert to the current
constitution if the MDC formations
refuse to re-negotiate the draft
charter.
“ZANU PF as a party is keen to have a new constitution for
Zimbabwe. The
party is also keen to ensure that we hold the next general
elections under
the new constitution. But if it is pushed to the corner, we
may consider to
revert to the old constitution,” Gumbo reportedly said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex
Bell
24 August 2012
ZANU PF youth militia have resuscitated three
terror bases in Mashonaland
West, where villagers are reportedly being
harassed and intimidated if they
do not attend ZANU PF
meetings.
According to a report by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), the
terror bases
are operational at Kazangarare Shopping Centre in Hurungwe
East. The report
released this week said that ZANU PF militias are jogging
every morning,
“intimidating villagers with liberation war songs and
reminding them of the
2008 election violence.”
A ZPP monitor from the
constituency reported that “the ZANU PF youths are
also assaulting people,
who would have disembarked from buses at the centre,
for not attending their
daily meetings.”
A local photographer and several other people were also
reportedly injured
following attacks from the ZANU PF youths, who the ZPP
said are led by Peter
Madamombe, a suspected soldier, and Samson
Kapesa.
The ZPP also said that two other terror bases have been
reportedly set-up at
Razor Shops and Kasora Business Centre. These bases are
believed to be led
by Dickson Munyoro and Luke Zinyenye
respectively.
Phillip Pasirayi from the Centre for Community Development
told SW Radio
Africa on Friday that the terror bases form part of ZANU PF’s
election
campaign, with by-elections and a critical presidential poll
expected in the
near future.
He explained that similar reports are
coming from across the country, with
ZANU PF groups leading an intensifying
campaign of harassment against anyone
perceived to be loyal to the
MDC.
This includes a campaign of “patriotic education” led by war vet
leader
Jabulani Sibanda in Mashonaland province and ongoing harassment by
the ZANU
PF aligned Chipangano gang in Harare.
The MDC-T recently
said that Jabulani Sibanda was armed with a rifle and
‘moving around
Masvingo province forcing villagers to attend his meetings
where he
intimidates them into saying that they support Zanu PF and
threatening to
skin them alive if they don’t comply.’
“They are doing this ahead of
elections and they are riding on the memory of
2008 to intimidate villagers,
by saying ‘if you still support MDC then you
know what will happen’,”
Pasirayi explained.
He also warned that incidents like this are likely to
increase closer to
elections, because ZANU PF has been allowed to act with
total impunity.
“No one has been brought to book since the violence in
2008 so people are in
fear and ZANU PF is still instilling fear. They have
been on the loose
across the country and nothing is being done,” Pasirayi
said.
http://www.radiovop.com
Rusape,
August 24, 2012 - A group of Zanu (PF) activists numbering about 200
on
Thursday invaded a farm belonging to Norman Sachikonye, the principal
director in the Prime Minister’s Office and an aspiring MDC-T parliamentary
candidate for Makoni central.
The land invaders who were singing and
dancing to Zanu (PF) and liberation
war songs and clad in Zanu (PF) regalia,
descended onto the aspiring
legislator's Zimati Kop farm and started pegging
and haphazardly allocating
stands among themselves.
The invaders were
allegedly being led and encouraged by an official
identified as Rusape Town
Council acting secretary Darlington Museka.
Sources who witnessed the
invasion said police officers who were present did
not say or do anything to
stop the invasion.
Sachikonye, last week, publicly declared his interest
to represent Makoni
Central on an MDC-T ticket.
Radio VOP spoke to
Sachikonye who said the land, which is 1km from Rusape
Town Centre, was
actually meant for the development of a residential area.
“The invaders
are back today (Thursday 23 August, 2012) on the land and they
are
continuing from where they left. After I reported the matter to the
police
yesterday they wanted me to give them more information on how we
acquired
the land. We actually have a certificate of no present interest
from the
Ministry of Lands which we got in 2010,” said Sachikonye.
He said they
were in the process of selling housing stands to individuals as
the 1 115
hectares piece of land is to be developed into a residential area.
“The
police told me that they want a complete file of the circumstances on
how we
acquired the land and that is what we are going to do now. I have
title
deeds to the land and I am sure the documentation is going to be
helpful,”
added Sachikonye.
He said a meeting between the police and the leaders of
the invaders has
been set for today.
Farm invasions have continued in
Zimbabwe more than ten years after the
government launched the chaotic land
reform programme. In recent weeks,
there has been a renewed spat of farm
invasions in the countryside as
political activists, disguised as war
veterans, take advantage of the
increased talk of elections to seize
farms.
http://www.voazimbabwe.com/
Blessing
Zulu
24.08.2012
President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team is expected
in Zimbabwe Tuesday on
a fresh mission to try and unlock the political
logjam resulting from
failure by the three parties in the unity government
to find common ground
on re-writing of the nation’s constitution.
In
his report to the Troika meeting of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) organ on politics, defence and security in Mozambique last
week, Zuma had said it was impossible to “prescribe how to resolve parties’
differences over the draft".
But exasperated by the now three-year
delay in writing the constitution,
SADC leaders resolved that Mr. Zuma must
actively engage the parties.
The South African president also said in his
report that the two Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) formations had
proposed that the parliamentary
constitutional committee (COPAC) draft and
the Zanu-PF draft be put before a
referendum if the ruling parties fail to
break the deadlock.
The coalition government is supposed to craft a new
constitution as part of
the roadmap to democratic elections, in accordance
with the Global Political
Agreement of September 2008.
SADC says it
wants the referendum to be conducted in October and general
elections by mid
next year.
The dispute arose after the Zanu-PF politburo rejected the
COPAC draft
though its negotiators had appended their signatures. The party
came with
fresh proposals that have been rejected by the two MDC
formations.
Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo told the VOA his party will
meet in a special
politburo session to discuss the crisis.
http://af.reuters.com
Fri Aug 24, 2012 1:03pm GMT
*
Draft restores powers to president, worrying MDC
* ZANU-PF draft
overturns one agreed by party negotiators last month
* Power sharing deal
calls for elections by next year
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, Aug
24 (Reuters) - ZANU-PF amendments to Zimbabwe's draft
constitution,
restoring sweeping powers to the president and setting up a
mandatory youth
service, have been rejected by its MDC coalition partners
and are likely to
delay adoption of the landmark new document.
Earlier this month, regional
leaders said work on the new constitution was
near completion, boding well
for parliamentary elections required by next
year under a power sharing deal
between ZANU-PF, the MDC and a smaller MDC
splinter group.
Approval
of the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in parliament
and none of
the parties have enough seats to railroad the document through
on their
own.
Zimbabweans had hoped elections held under a new constitution agreed
by all
parties would avoid the sort of violence that marred previous polls
and led
to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to neighbouring South
Africa.
A draft produced by an inter-party parliamentary committee and
agreed by
ZANU-PF and MDC negotiators last month curbed presidential powers
by
requiring lawmakers' approval for the dissolution of parliament, and for
the
declaration of war and public emergencies.
It left the president
with the authority to make senior appointments.
In the amended draft seen
by Reuters on Friday, ZANU-PF, President Robert
Mugabe's party, restores to
the president the power to declare war and
dissolve parliament, concentrates
power in the central government and sets
up a mandatory youth
service.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC),
which formed the coalition government with the rival ZANU-PF
in 2009,
immediately rejected the changes. The draft was given to the MDC
and an MDC
splinter group this week.
MDC leaders say the mandatory
youth service for all school leavers that
ZANU-PF proposes is worrying
because a similar scheme was in the past used
to produce pro-Mugabe
"militias" used to intimidate and beat up the
opposition.
Mugabe, 88,
has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 and is under
international
sanctions for suspected human rights abuses.
"Even at our most foolish,
there is no way we could ever accept those
amendments. Anyone who does so
would be committing political suicide,"
Welshman Ncube, leader of the MDC
splinter group, posted on his Facebook
page.
Zimbabwe's struggling
economy, crushed by hyperinflation about four years
ago, has been recovering
slowly since the power-sharing deal brought greater
stability to the
country.
Mineral-rich Zimbabwe once had one of the strongest economies in
Africa, but
is now among the continent's poorest countries, the result of
what analysts
say is years of economic mismanagement by Mugabe and
ZANU-PF.
ZANU-PF, which has been calling for early elections this year,
said there
would be an emergency meeting of its top committee on Saturday to
discuss
how to proceed in light of the MDC rejection of its amendments.
http://www.radiovop.com
Harare, August 24, 2012
- Zimbabwean police on Thursday initiated a process
to shut down the offices
of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) after
charging a representative
of the organisation for running an “unregistered”
organisation.
Detectives at the Law and Order Section at the Harare
Central Police Station
on Thursday charged GALZ, which was represented by
Martha Tholanah, the
organisation’s co-chairperson with running an
“unregistered” organisation in
contravention of Section 6 (iii) of the
Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO)
Act.
The police, who alleged
that GALZ had commenced operations in Zimbabwe
without registering its
operations under the PVO Act, released Tholanah, who
had since Tuesday been
a regular guest at Harare Central Police Station in
the company of his
lawyers Dzimbabwe Chimbga, Tonderai Bhatasara, Marufu
Mandevere and Jeremiah
Bamu from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and
advised the GALZ
co-chairperson that they would proceed by way of summons.
The move by the
police is the latest attack on Non- Governmental
Organisations (NGO)’s by
the coalition government, which in recent months
has been harassing human
rights defenders and NGO’s ahead of a
constitutional referendum and planned
general elections.
Last month, two police officers only identified as
Sergeant Ndawana and
Detective Chipwanya summoned Abel Chikomo, the
executive director of the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, to stand trial at
the Harare Magistrates
Court after charging him with running an
“unregistered” organisation in
contravention of the PVO Act.
However,
the trial did not commence after State prosecutor, Innocent
Chingarande,
withdrew summons issued against Chikomo after he advised that
the State was
not ready to proceed with the matter.
Meanwhile, it has since emerged
that an unidentified member of the Zimbabwe
National Army on Tuesday raided
the premises of the (GALZ), a day after more
than 20 police officers from
the Zimbabwe Republic Police swooped on the
organisation’s offices in Milton
Park suburb, Harare.
A soldier, who was dressed in military attire and
was in the company of two
plain clothed people visited the GALZ offices on
Tuesday afternoon and
patrolled the organisation’s premises.
After
the team failed to find anything of interest to them they went through
the
caretaker's occurrence book and recorded details of people who had
visited
the GALZ premises in the past few months. One of them inadvertently
left his
mobile phone number, which was recorded by the caretaker.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
24 August
2012
A decision by mobile operator Econet to cut off its interconnection
services
with its state owned rival NetOne lasted less than 48 hours, after
alleged
pressure from the courts.
The service was cut on Thursday
over a US$20 million debt owed by NetOne,
which has failed to pay its fees
for the last three years.
But Econet’s lawyer Harrison Nkomo said Friday
that the group had agreed to
reconnect NetOne, pending the outcome of their
court case that will be heard
on Monday.
Interconnection fees are
charged by mobile operators to enable calls to be
transmitted from each
other’s networks. The decision to cut this service
meant the calls between
the two networks could not go through on Thursday.
Econet announced the
termination of the service in a public notice,
revealing that NetOne’s debt
has been building since 2009. The company said
Thursday that it is “obvious
that NetOne was not prepared to honour its
obligations” even though NetOne
has continued collecting the fees due to
Econet from subscribers as part of
the interconnection deal.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
24 August
2012
Concern remains high about the future of Howard Hospital in
Chiweshe, amid
speculation about the real reasons for the dismissal of a
much loved doctor
there.
The Salvation Army run hospital has been
running a severely limited service
since the resident chief doctor, Canadian
born Dr. Paul Thistle, was
forcibly dismissed earlier this month. The
official line from the Salvation
Army is that the doctor has been
“reassigned” as part of the organisation’s
internal processes.
A
statement from the Canadian branch of the faith based charity group said a
new Acting Hospital Administrator has been assigned and “is in place to
guide the facility through this transition.” According to the statement
“service will continue and be enhanced by significant, planned future
investment in the hospital.”
“A team under the direction of
International Headquarters will be heading as
soon as possible to Howard
Hospital to review and analyze this situation
further,” the statement read,
adding: “As the home territory for Captain Dr.
Paul Thistle and Captain
Pedrinah Thistle, the Salvation Army in Canada is
working to ensure the safe
return of the Thistle family.”
Dr. Thistle, his Zimbabwean born wife
Pedrinah, and their two young sons,
remain in Zimbabwe, despite a 48 hour
ultimatum to leave the country that
was handed to him last week. The
deadline, set by the Salvation Army’s
Zimbabwean chief of mission came in
the aftermath of public protests last
week, which saw 12 people being
arrested and eight Howard Mission nurses
being interrogated. Dr. Thistle
refused to leave, because he was concerned
about his colleagues.
The
chief of mission, Vinece Chigariro, then threatened the doctor with
excommunication from the church if he did not follow her orders. But this
has not forced him into leaving.
An old friend of Dr. Thistle’s,
Canadian based Warren Viegas who has been in
regular contact with the
doctor, told SW Radio Africa that the chief concern
is for the future of the
hospital.
“The hospital for years has received financial support from
various sources,
including thousands of dollars that Paul has sourced
himself. Frankly the
support will stop because the friends of his here in
Canada and his medical
peers feel that the Salvation Army has thrown him
under the bus,” Viegas
said.
The doctor’s dismissal is understood to
be related to concerns he raised
about the fate of donated cash meant for
the Chiweshe mission. It’s
understood that thousands of dollars in cash and
building materials has been
plundered.
There is also speculation that
the doctor, who has been a respected and
loved member of the community for
more than 16 years, is a victim of ZANU PF
infighting. Vice President Joice
Mujuru is a senior Salvation Army captain
and it’s believed she is trying to
control the hospital in order to control
the area, where her rival Emmerson
Mnangagwa is said to have support.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
24 August 2012
The MDC-T Youth Assembly in South Africa
held a demonstration at the
Zimbabwe Embassy in Pretoria on Friday
demanding, among other things, the
“immediate and unconditional” release of
their National Youth Chairperson
Solomon Madzore and 28 others, accused of
killing a Glen View cop.
Giyani Dube, chairman of the MDC-T South Africa
Youth Assembly, described
the event as a “big success” and praised the
youths who participated as
“brave and courageous” . He said they were
surprised when the ambassador
himself came out to invite them in for a quick
chat about their demands.
“We did not get into detailed discussions about
our demands with the
ambassador because our mission was to picket the Zim
authorities over
several issues. But we made a date with him to come back on
September 21 for
a meeting,” Dube said.
The youths are also demanding
that Zimbabweans outside the country be
allowed to vote, dismissing
proposals in the new draft constitution that
deny the Diaspora the right to
participate in elections.
“As Zimbabweans in South Africa we demand a
Diaspora vote. SADC citizens in
other countries are able to vote, no matter
where they live in the world. We
had expected this in the new constitution
and are disappointed. We demand
that we participate in the referendum and
the coming elections,” Dube
explained.
ZANU-PF’s insistence on
renegotiating the draft charter produced by COPAC
also took centre stage at
the demonstration. Dube said: “We are calling on
Robert Mugabe to stop these
endless negotiations and let Zimbabweans decide
in a
referendum.”
Dube reiterated the position of the MDC-T that ZANU PF had
been fully
represented in the negotiations over the draft charter and there
was no
reason to discard the version of the constitution that was agreed to
by all
parties.
The youths are also demanding better quality of
service from the embassy in
Pretoria. “The embassy has not been serving
people with dignity. It has been
partisan in assisting those who belong to
ZANU PF. Civil servants work for
the everyone, regardless of their political
affiliation,” Dube said.
Madzore and 28 other MDC-T officials and
activists are accused of killing
police officer Petros Mutedza in a Glen
view pub last year. The police claim
the cop died after a brawl with MDC-T
members who conducted an illegal
meeting at the pub.
But the MDC-T
insists the charges were fabricated as part of a ZANU PF
campaign to
destabilize their structures. They say most of the accused are
officials
within the party, and many have documented evidence that proves
they were
not at the scene when Mutedza was killed.
The trial has been suspended,
pending the recovery of one of the accused who
is ill and receiving
treatment at a private hospital. The MDC-T say this is
being used as an
excuse to delay the release of their members.
http://www.voazimbabwe.com
Irwin
Chifera
24.08.2012
Visiting Lesotho Prime Minister Thomas Thabane says
the West should remove
sanctions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and his
Zanu PF colleagues as
they are hurting ordinary
Zimbabweans.
Officially opening the 102nd edition of the Harare
Agricultural Show on
Friday, Mr. Thabane said the West and European Union
punished President
Mugabe for embarking on the controversial land reform
program.
He said Zimbabwean leaders have over the years been condemned by
the West
for reclaiming land “stolen by the white settle
regime”.
Meanwhile, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has restored interconnection
services
between its mobile providers and the state-owned Netone after
cutting it off
for failing to settle a $20.4 million debt.
In a
statement, Econet’s attorneys said the company has agreed to restore
the
services pending a court decision Monday.
The disruption of services
affected thousands of subscribers in the country.
Econet said Thursday
that Netone had not only failed to pay the debt which
has been accumulating
since 2009, but claimed that the two companies did not
have any
interconnection services agreement.
http://www.voazimbabwe.com
Ntungamili
Nkomo
23.08.2012
The water crisis in Zimbabwe's second largest city of
Bulawayo has reached
precarious levels with the local council tightening its
rationing measures
and depriving residents of the precious liquid for three
days a week.
For the past several months residents have had to endure a
weekly two-day
shedding routine, but the dwindling water levels have forced
city engineers
to propose tighter limitations.
The engineers told the
council’s General Purpose Committee in a meeting
Thursday that the situation
in the city’s remaining three dams was getting
worse.
As a result, an
urgent full council meeting has been called for Friday to
endorse the
three-day rationing proposal.
Bulawayo lies in the heart of the semi-arid
Matabeleland region.
A century-old ambitious plan to draw water from the
Zambezi River to the
city has remained a pipe-dream, though officials say
the project is now
underway.
Entumbane councilor Prince Dube told VOA
while the local authority
sympathizes with residents, it has no option but
to resort to drastic
action.
"If we don't do it," Dube said, "the
city might run out of water before the
next rain season."
He added
that councilors have scheduled a meeting Friday with Water
Resources
Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo to appeal for government assistance.
The
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association expressed concern that
tightening
the water shedding regime was a recipe for diseases like
cholera.
"Already residents have been reeling from the two-day rationing.
Imagine
what the situation will be like now that the council is increasing
the days
to three," said association director Rodrick Fayayo.
http://www.eubusiness.com
24 August 2012, 21:41
CET
(PRETORIA) - European Union diplomatic chief Catherine Ashton
and South
African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane held talks here
Friday on
sanctions that have been slapped against Iran and
Zimbabwe.
The talks were part of preparations for an annual EU-South
Africa summit set
for September 18 in Brussels, which President Jacob Zuma
is scheduled to
attend.
Regarding Iranian oil sanctions, "we have
agreed to send a South African ...
delegation to Brussels to discuss the
impact of the application of EU
sanctions on Iran, on South Africa, and the
rest of the southern African
region," Nkoana-Mashabane said.
The
European Union and the United States have clamped sanctions on Tehran to
force Iran to abandon its contested nuclear programme, and nations which
import crude oil from Iran could run foul of the measures.
"It is
just not possible to wake up one day and say we will no longer import
crude
oil from Iran," the South African minister stated.
South Africa has
nonetheless indicated it is looking at Nigeria and Angola
as alternative
sources of crude oil.
On Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe and
close aides are also the
target of EU sanctions, Ashton did not make any
promises regarding a
proposal to lift the measures.
Zimbabwe, with
the backing of other countries in southern Africa, want the
sanctions lifted
unconditionally.
But Ashton replied: "The sanctions are the sanctions,
and they exist."
EU ministers last month said they would lift sanctions
against most of the
112 Zimbabweans still listed on a decade-old EU asset
freeze and travel ban,
once the country held a "credible" vote on a new
constitution.
"Our big, big push is to finish the work on the
constitution, to get the
referendum done, and to move towards elections,"
said Ashton.
Zimbabwe's draft constitution was approved by both sides
last month but
Mugabe put a damper on the process last weekend, saying more
work was needed
on the long-delayed document.
The constitution would
rein in presidential powers, bolster those of
parliament and set a 10-year
presidential term limit.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
23/08/2012 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
ZANU PF has warned that the country may have to make do
with the Lancaster
House Independence constitution after its amendments to
the draft new
charter were rejected by the MDC parties.
The party
came up with an amended version of the draft following meetings
over four
consecutive weeks which President Robert Mugabe handed to Prime
Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, deputy premier Arthur Mutambara and MDC leader
Professor
Welshman Ncube after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
But the MDC parties –
which have since endorsed to draft in its original
form - told Mugabe
Wednesday that Zanu PF’s amendments were not acceptable
and insisted the
draft should now be taken to the Second All-stakeholders
Conference as it
is.
Zanu PF had removed devolution, dual citizenship from the draft
constitution
and gave the presidency executive powers to dissolve
parliament, declare
war, appoint judges without interview and enjoy
complete presidential
immunity.
Education Minister and senior MDC
official, David Coltart, said Zanu PF was
attempting to "subvert the entire
process of peaceful reform in Zimbabwe".
MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora
added: "The time for negotiations is over.
We're not going to accept any
changes because there is one draft and it was
agreed to by all political
parties."
Ncube said earlier this week that his party would not "betray
the people's
struggle for a democratic constitution".
He added: "It's
not going to happen. It's time to let the dice roll the way
it will. If an
election without a new constitution is the only way to move
forward, then
let it be."
Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said the politburo would
meet over the
weekend to map the way forward.
“We are having a
Politburo meeting on Saturday and that is when we are
likely to come up with
a position. I understand that the process is now at
consultation stage with
Principals,” Gumbo told The Herald.
“Zanu PF as a party is keen to have a
new Constitution for Zimbabwe. The
party is also keen to ensure that we hold
the next general elections under
the new Constitution.
“But if it
(Zanu PF) is pushed to the corner, we may consider reverting to
the old
(current) Constitution. If that is their position (MDC formations),
it is
fine we are going to take a position on Saturday.”
National
Coonstitutional Assembly chairman, Lovemore Madhuku said it was
unlikely the
country would get a new constitution.
"What is clear is that we won't
produce a new constitution," he said. "What
Zanu PF is pushing for is that
we get a Zanu PF document or we get none.
They should abandon this process
because it is flawed."
Gumbo insisted the parties need to find a solution
to the stalemate over the
draft but maintained that Zanu PF would not give
ground over issues such as
devolution, a key demand for the MDC
parties.
“We need to have elections one way or the other. My
understanding is that
some of the issues that the MDC formations are
advocating are very minor,
such as the issue of devolution,” he
said.
“As Zanu PF, we are saying we cannot have devolution because we are
a
unitary state. They are sticking to issues that do not
help.”
Zimbabwe is writing a new constitution as part of a raft of
political
reforms that will culminate in new elections to replace the
coalition
government which has been in office since 2009.
The
regional SADC grouping has since urged the parties to speed up the
implementation of the reforms so that elections can be held early next year.
August 24th, 2012
According to media sources yesterday, this is a summary, by Professor Welshman Ncube, of the outrageous demands being made by Zanu PF for the proposed new constitution. I find this a very useful summary of the kind of party Zanu PF is, and I hope other Zimbabweans will also read this as their’election manifesto’. Surely no sane or reasonable person can fail to see how incredibly self-serving this is for Zanu PF heavyweights, and how horrendous it will be for Zimbabwean citizens. These demands must be a humiliation to all Zanu PF supporters.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
August 24, 2012 in Opinion
OF all
the daft remarks made about the draft constitution, and there have
been
many, those by Goodson Nguni in the Herald last week should take an
award.
By MuckRaker
“It is obvious there is a link between the
illegal, immoral, undemocratic
regime-change and the draft constitution,” he
declared.
“Zimbabweans are wondering how a constitution which was authored
for three
years was suddenly available at the end of July just as the
European Union
was meeting.”
Why does Nguni see a plot in all this? It
has long been the EU’s position
that funds would be made available to
Zimbabwe if it conducted a transparent
and democratic referendum. There’s
nothing “illegal, immoral or
undemocratic” about that.
The EU would like
Zanu PF to commit suicide, Nguni fatuously claims, by
accepting a “return to
Rhodesia” through the draft.
This silly remark derives
from the fact that the draft protects property
rights. But Nguni doesn’t
stop there. He denounces judicial reform, a
ceremonial president who shares
power with his appointees in cabinet, and a
politicised attorney-general
“whose main function would be to prosecute all
beneficiaries of the land
reform programme”.
He also takes exception to a president deprived of powers
to dissolve
parliament…a parliament with powers to amend presidential powers
and make
new regulations, a parliament that will advise and control the
president,
and lastly a parliament which will have a final say in the timing
of
elections.
These are of course all progressive measures that can be
found in
constitutions around the world. But Nguni is aggrieved. The
Western-backed
parties don’t care what the people said in the outreach
programme, he
claims.
Zanu PF has been churning out
this mantra since the drafting started. They
expect the public to buy their
spurious claims.
In fact it is Nguni and his ilk who don’t care what the
people said. We know
perfectly well what they said in 2008. And Zanu PF
certainly didn’t care
then. Why do they suddenly care now? In particular
Nguni abhors those
elements of the draft that provide basic rights to the
people.
Rights such as a reformed Judicial Service Commission, an independent
judiciary, a clear separation of powers, and a parliament with powers to
amend and initiate legislation.
All these things are fundamental in any
modern and enlightened constitution.
But according to Nguni they are a
“conspiracy against Zanu PF”.
“Even more controversial is that the draft
constitution allows for dual
citizenship and the children and grandchildren
of white Rhodesians will be
allowed to come to Zimbabwe and participate in
elections obviously voting
for the MDC formations. The draft constitution is
a fraud.”
What is fraudulent here is the myth that Zanu PF can bring about
meaningful
change when it has not been able to do so over a 30-year period.
And they
feel a compelling need to disenfranchise minorities. They are
appalled that
minorities might actually exercise their right to
vote.
Nguni is president of the Federation of
Non-Governmental Organisations, we
are told.
Anybody heard of that
outfit? What we do know about it is its rejection of
every single
progressive measure in the new draft. It wants to maintain a
powerful
president who should not be constrained by parliament or an
independent
judiciary. Amendment No 7 has returned to haunt us. The imperial
presidency
remains unalloyed. The very fact that Zanu PF prefers the
Lancaster House
document tells us all we need to know about its attitude to
reform. It
prefers colonial institutions to local ones.
At least with people like Nguni
advertising his antediluvian views the
public will get a good view of the
sort of society Zanu PF wants to build.
Of course Zimbabweans want regime
change. Most people do. And they have the
right to vote for
it.
The recent killing by the police of striking mine
workers at Lonmin mine in
South Africa has provided fodder for Zanu PF
mandarins who milked the
disaster for all its worth.
Crying louder than
the bereaved South Africans, the analysts were up in arms
last week over the
supposedly “mischievous” failure by Western media to give
“full” coverage of
the shootings.
“A clear demonstration of double standards on the part of the
imperialists,”
we were told.
It is strange how these analysts find their
voices in pointing out the
excesses of other regimes except their
own.
Our own ZRP are no angels either with Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe
recently chastising them for brutality after allegedly hitting a vendor with
a brick while in police custody and breaking his leg.
ZBC also took the
opportunity to take the moral high ground wagging a finger
at Western media
outlets for selective coverage in their reportage.
“Thursday’s shootings in
Rustenburg, South Africa, now dubbed as the
Marikana Massacre, where police
fired automatic weapons against advancing
strikers, has shocked many but
surprisingly the Western media has remained
silent,” ZBC mused last
Sunday.
Wonders never cease, it seems, and there was more where this drivel
came
from.
ZBC “analyst” Chris Mutsvangwa said while
Zimbabwe sympathises with South
Africa, people in the region should be wary
about the “mischief” and
selective coverage by Western media in protecting
their interests.
Nguni also pitched in, urging the African continent to be
careful of the
divide and rule approach by the West, saying it could have
been a different
story had such shootings taken place in Zimbabwe.
Adding
to the vainglorious chorus was the Herald on Tuesday in its editorial
comment which read: “Despite the gruesome death toll of 44, when the eight
mine workers and two police officers who died earlier in the week are
factored in, Western media coverage has been largely indifferent at worst
and muted at best.”
Would the response have been the same had those 34
miners been shot and
killed at any of the four mines operating in Chiadzwa,
the Herald wanted to
know?
Unsurprisingly the fact that President Jacob
Zuma had cut short his trip to
Mozambique where he was attending the Sadc
summit and had already set up a
taskforce to probe the killings was omitted.
Facts, it would seem, are an
inconvenience best avoided.
Without batting
the proverbial eyelid, the Herald lectured on: “As the
media, we all need to
have a sense of perspective and reflect on the value
judgments that underpin
our reactions to issues, and what they mean in our
scheme of things. Such a
responsible approach will, no doubt, help us
understand not only our role as
watchdogs but also our obligations to the
society that entrusts us with the
pen.”
We are not sure which Western media they are referring to because the
major
television networks were awash with the story.
Funny how such
mendacious claims are coming from a publication which claims
to be taking a
“responsible approach” to journalism.
Meanwhile Foreign
Affairs secretary Ambassador Joey Bimha has been
misleading the Herald on
the status of our Lesotho visitor, Mr Tom Motsoahae
Thabane, who is in
Harare to open the Agricultural Show.
“He is coming tomorrow on a three-day
state visit and will officially open
the agricultural Show on Friday,” Bimha
said. “Several” heads of state have
opened the Show since Independence, we
are told. The Herald’s list of
presidents includes the “president” of
Swaziland.
Muckraker is open to correction here, but the last time we looked
Swaziland
was ruled by a king. And so is Lesotho.
In fact only heads of
state can make state visits. We understand the need to
boost Zimbabwe’s
standing in the region, but that should not include helping
the Herald to
get things wrong!
South Africa-based Zimbabwean
businessman, Mutumwa Mawere, has formed a
party called United Movement for
Democracy (UMDP) and thrown his hat into
the presidential ring, reports The
Zimbabwean.
UMDP, The Zimbabwean reports, is predominantly made up of MDC99
members with
former MDC99 spokesperson Aaron Muzungu and vice-president
Biviana Musimi
being among the fledgling party’s officials.
Muzungu, who
again has taken the position of party’s spokesperson said:
“After falling
out with MDC99 leader, Job Sikhala, on matters of strategy,
we realised that
to achieve our objective of democratically changing the
political
dispensation in the country, we had to break away and form a new
political
party under the leadership of Mutumwa Mawere.”
Muzungu gained infamy after he
was arrested and charged for stealing a Ford
Ranger T6 which was being
displayed at a car show by Croco Motors.
According to the Herald, Muzungu
“gatecrashed the event, sat in the cab,
noticed the keys were in the
ignition and fuel was in the tank. So he
started the engine, drove out of
the display area, and out of the sports
club and out of sight”.
Over the
next eight days, Croco Motors offered a US$5 000 reward for
information
leading to the recovery of the vehicle which had done just 17
km.
Detectives from the CID Vehicle Theft Squad finally traced the
vehicle to
Muzungu, who told the investigators he had “bought” the truck at
the car
show. Its new mileage was 1 317km.
Let’s hope Muzungu will drive
his new party to success. Pun intended!
We could only
agree with President Zuma that given the delicacy of the
situation at
Marikana Mine, restraint should be exercised by all. Zuma has
appointed a
commission of inquiry into the tragedy.
“With tensions running as high as
they were at Marikana and in surrounding
communities at the (last)weekend,
it is only the criminally irresponsible
and cynically opportunistic who
would wade in and stoke the fires of
inter-union and party-political
conflict any further,” Business Day
commented.
“But sure enough, former
ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema was in there,
gumboots and all,
stoking away. His speech to the striking miners was
chilling in its
disregard for the potential to provoke further violence and
death, and
breathtaking in its self-serving exploitation of raw emotion for
political
ends.”
Let us remind ourselves at this juncture that Malema is a friend of
Zanu PF
who omits to mention that when he says President Zuma is protecting
British
business interests at Lonmin, he doesn’t mean those interests he
went to
London to meet just a week earlier! Some of the miners at Rustenburg
listening to Malema had been convinced by a sangoma a few days earlier that
if they let him smear some black powder into cuts on their foreheads they
would become invincible, we are told.
Finally another
demagogue who needs to be unmasked is Julian Assange who has
been appearing
on the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he
is holed up.
Assange has obviously been studying film footage of Mussolini
addressing his
followers from the balcony overlooking the Piazza Venezia in
Rome. Assange
forgot to mention that he faces rape charges in Sweden and
that Ecuador’s
equally populist president Correa has an appalling record of
repression of
the media.
Strange isn’t it how these details get left out!
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
August 24, 2012 in Opinion
THE next
six months will be crucial for Zimbabwe. The outcome of the
controversial
constitution-making process — particularly the fate of the
flawed Copac
draft — will give us an indication of where the country is
heading and how
the current transition is likely to pan out.
Report by Dumisani
Muleya
Zimbabwe could go through to democratic change or experience
regression,
with a precarious sliding back to violence and economic turmoil.
By February
next year or end of the first quarter, it would be clearer where
the country
is going. At the moment the situation remains touch-and-go,
particularly in
view of the dispute over the new draft
constitution.
After stabilising the political and economic situation
following a decade of
a calamitous meltdown and signing of the Global
Political Agreement (GPA)
leading to the current coalition government,
President Robert Mugabe and his
fellow principals are now at a cross-roads
over the draft constitution and
the associated roadmap, critical building
blocks to credible, free and fair
elections.
Sadc leaders have of
late been pulling out all the stops to keep the GPA and
the reform agenda on
track. Only last weekend, regional leaders meeting in
Maputo told Mugabe,
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Industry and Trade
minister Welshman
Ncube, who lead three parties in the unity government, to
move fast to
conclude the constitution-making process and prepare for free
and fair
elections.
The international community is also taking a renewed
interest in the country
as the mandate of the fragile and dysfunctional
coalition government rapidly
runs out. The African Union is in the picture,
as a guarantor of the GPA,
together with Sadc.
No doubt the
United Nations, which almost put Zimbabwe on the UN Security
Council agenda
following the blood-spattered presidential election run-off
in June 2008, is
watching the situation. The UN human rights high
commissioner Navi Pillay
was in Harare recently and underlined the
importance of credible
polls.
This confluence of events and factors presents the best chance
in years for
a lasting restoration of peace and stability in Zimbabwe, an
explosive
trouble spot at the heart of the region for more than a decade
now.
Zimbabwe is key to regional stability and in geopolitical terms.
Even if it
is a relatively small country of 12 million people, the southern
African
region where it is situated — with a market of about 200 million
people,
growing oil production mainly in Angola, vast mineral deposits
across the
sub-continent, discoveries of gas in Mozambique and other
resources, the
most stable region in Africa now despite instability in DRC
and Madagascar,
and a location along key shipping lanes on the Indian and
Atlantic oceans —
is by contrast of great strategic, commercial and
political importance.
It is important Mugabe and his party realise
they can’t continue to eschew
or stymie the tide of reform and change. A
well-led and managed Zimbabwe,
which has vast diamonds, platinum and gold
deposits, among other minerals,
could be an engine of growth for the region,
providing new mining
opportunities and key links to regional communication,
transport and
electricity grids.
Combine this with abundant
mineral resources, hydro-electric power and
potential gas reserves to
complement existing coal-fired energy and a
generally educated and
productive labour force, the case for a strong
rebound and integration
becomes compelling and even more urgent.
Before the disastrous land
reform programme and now the discredited
indigenisation, Zimbabwe was widely
considered a potential breadbasket for
the region. But current instability
in the country has been profoundly
destabilising to its neighbours, hence
Sadc leaders’ anxiety.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans fleeing
the recent economic meltdown
and political repression flooded across
borders, overwhelming the job
markets, social services and goodwill of South
Africa, Botswana and other
neighbours. Some Zimbabweans went
overseas.
So Zimbabwe needs to grab the current opportunity to
resolve this
decade-long stalemate and move on. To achieve that, however,
requires local,
regional and wider international unity of purpose and
consensus on the key
issue — holding free and fair elections. Otherwise Zanu
PF hardliners and
other spoilers could undermine efforts to restore
democracy, development and
progress in the country.
Most
importantly, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Ncube (including Arthur Mutambara)
must
show maturity and leadership over the draft constitution issue by
coming up
with a compromise to allow the country to choose a new legitimate
government
and start focusing on rebuilding the struggling economy and
people’s ruined
lives.
So far the signs are worrying. Already the GPA implementation
and reform
agenda are seemingly heading to another dead end, as the
environment becomes
politically-charged with tensions rising again. But the
battle over the
draft constitution, vicious as it may be, provides an
opportunity for
consensus, reform and change via credible elections even
though the Copac
draft is defective.
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
August 24, 2012 in Opinion
AFTER holding
drawn out day and night politburo meetings, Zanu PF has
finally come up with
its much-awaited proposed amendments to the draft
constitution produced by
Copac and handed them over to the principals and
party leaders on
Tuesday.
Zanu PF recommendations are a product of the party’s militant wing
and hawks
fighting in Mugabe’s corner. The sabre-rattlers are battling to
preserve the
status quo and protect Mugabe ahead of crucial elections by
June or so next
year.
It must be appreciated this is the same
combative group which wanted
elections last year or this year — with or
without a new constitution — but
was stopped in its tracks by defiant
Zimbabweans and Sadc leaders who want
to ensure free and fair polls with a
credible outcome.
There was another faction in Zanu PF which wanted
the current Copac draft
constitution as it looked beyond Mugabe and plotted
to lay the ground for it
to take over using the constitution-making process.
This group was thwarted
by Mugabe’s diehards who often pretend to be
nationalists and flag-wavers
when their interests are transparently about
the pursuit of power and
personal aggrandisement.
And then there
was a group of neutrals who were not interested in the issue
or did not care
whatever the outcome. Of course, this being an organisation
which is not
monolithic, there were other cross-cutting individuals and
cliques with
overlapping interests.
However, after Mugabe’s adherents angrily
protested against the Copac
draft — admittedly very flawed and shoddy — the
politburo took over and
rewrote the document, winding back the clock of
reform.
Although there were some genuine individuals who wanted to
come up with a
good constitution for the nation and posterity, their good
objectives became
conflated with narrow party political agendas, reducing
the whole exercise
to Mugabe’s battle for political
survival.
Predictably, Zanu PF’s suggested changes (although some
were good and
progressive) overall amounted to nothing but a bid to restore
the
constitutional status quo. As widely feared, the recommendations were
simply
about restoring Mugabe’s sweeping executive powers whittled down in
the
current draft. The amendments largely underline regression in political
terms and a slide back to authoritarianism.
The only difference
between the current constitution and the Copac draft if
amended along the
lines of Zanu PF’s proposals, would be the pretentious
liberation struggle
ethos added to the document which taken as a whole would
be one of the most
retrogressive draft constitutions produced locally yet.
Instead of
reworking the draft while leaving its basic structure and
underlying
philosophy intact, Zanu PF went further to change it by capturing
its
populist posturing on the liberation struggle, indigenisation and youth
empowerment that now permeate the entire document at a time when Mugabe is
struggling to solidly identify himself and his party with the
past.
If Mugabe and his party have their way, the Copac draft would
be worse than
the current Lancaster House constitution in many respects. The
draft is
already bad enough on its own and everyone agrees. So amending the
draft
through hidebound pitches and suggestions would make it even more
sloppy and
incompatible with a modern, civilised and democratic
society.
As noted by Welshman Ncube, the Zanu PF amendments restore
Mugabe’s sweeping
executive powers and eradicate devolution entirely from
the draft by
deleting all references to dispersal of executive
authority.
The changes expunge the presidential running mate
provisions and replace
them with the current system with the new provision
that in the event of the
office of president becoming vacant, the
replacement will be chosen by the
party to which the president belongs and
reposes all executive authority in
the president by scrapping the provision
which vests it in the president and
cabinet. They effectively reconstitute
the imperial presidency by restoring
virtually all the current presidential
powers and even add a new provision
that cabinet can only exercise authority
under the direction of the
president. They also restore the current
presidential immunity provisions.
Add to this restoration of the
president’s powers of appointment and the
removal of provisions requiring a
law to regulate the Central Intelligence
Organisation to ensure it is
non-partisan, professional and national in
character, it becomes even more
clearer this was about resisting change to
preserve the status quo and
Mugabe’s toxic leadership. Zanu PF must either
adjust or die.
Transcript of the latest edition of Diaspora Diaries with SW Radio Africa presenter Alex Bell and guest Political Analyst Professor John Makumbe.
21 August 2012
Alex Bell: Hello and welcome to Diaspora Diaries on SW Radio Africa, Zimbabwe’s independent voice. I’m Alex Bell and on tonight’s show I carry on unpacking the details of a multi-million dollar loan that kept Robert Mugabe afloat in 2008 and tonight I’ll be looking at the key companies and the individuals involved. Last week we looked at some of the details of the loan and looked at how this cash injection saw the Mugabe regime cling to power through a campaign of violence and murder.
An investigation by the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa uncovered that an American institutional investor named Och-Ziff financed that loan which in turn was the result of a controversial business arrangement with some shady business people.
So let’s take a closer look at what happened:
As we know, the deal started with ZANU PF pressuring Anglo American Platinum to hand over about a quarter of its platinum shares. Now these were handed over to a group called Todal Mining, a joint venture between the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and a private company called Lefever Finance. This Lefever group was in turn owned by a group called Meryweather Investments based in the British Virgin Islands which is linked to controversial businessman and ZANU PF functionary, Billy Rautenbach. Lefever Finance was then bought out by CAMEC, the Central African Mining and Exploration Company, for about five million dollars and as we know, the company threw in a hundred million dollar loan which it said was going to be used by Lefever to comply with its contractual obligations in Zimbabwe. The money however went straight to ZANU PF and effectively kept the Mugabe regime afloat.
So – who is CAMEC? Well at the time CAMEC was chaired by a former British cricket player called Phil Edmunds whose closest business ally was Rautenbach. And of course we know that Rautenbach has made a fortune through illicit dealings with both the Mugabe regime and the government in the DRC. At one time Rautenbach was also reportedly a 17% shareholder in CAMEC in about 2006. Another key shareholder in the company is an infamous Israeli businessman called Dan Gertler known best for his dealings in the DRC copper industry. He also has strong Zimbabwe links and in 2006 bought half ownership of a copper mine in the DRC from Zim businessman John Bredenkamp. The other half of those shares was held by a group called Boss Mining, in turn 80% owned by CAMEC and formerly owned once again by Billy Rautenbach.
Now the Mail & Guardian in a new report has said that Dan Gertler is synonymous with grabbing and flipping and allegedly used his relationship with politicians to secure mineral concessions in the DRC only to sell them only to sell them on at a great profit. He most controversially flipped the multi-billion dollar Kolwezi project which had been stripped from Canada’s First Quantum Minerals to a London listed miner. That deal made news headlines.
But as the Mail & Guardian has since revealed this sort of arrangement was not unusual and two years earlier, top South African businessman Tokyo Sexwale had a 150 million dollar investment with Gertler in a similar scenario. That money was also put forward as a loan to Gertler through an affiliate of African Management Limited which is a joint venture between Sexwale’s investment group Mvelaphanda Holdings, its associate company Palladino Holdings and once again the Och-Ziff Capital Management Group which is the hedge fund which financed the 100 million dollar loan that was given eventually to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
This is a complex network of business arrangements and people whose inter-connected dealings have kept the Robert Mugabe regime afloat and could potentially keep the regime afloat in future elections. Well my guest tonight is political analyst Professor John Makumbe to talk to me about what this means for the future as we head towards next elections next year. Well Professor thank you, as always it’s such a pleasure to have you joining us. This of course is an incredibly complex story but it does seem to indicate this very complex network of people who for one thing have very little moral feeling or moral understanding, especially when it comes to dealing with groups like the Robert Mugabe regime. What do you make of their dealings in Zimbabwe?
John Makumbe: Well I think it is part of a very huge story about how ZANU PF has been supported by multi-national corporations particularly those from the UK which have been bootlicking Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF as a way of protecting their own interests in Zimbabwe. You and I know that there are more than 400 British companies in Zimbabwe and this money you are talking about, the funding which was made available to ZANU PF and Robert Mugabe is part and parcel of the bribery if you like, it is part and parcel of the inducement, it’s part and parcel of the (inaudible) that has been going on between ZANU PF and these companies, including such big companies. But they don’t need to do that but they are doing it as a way of appeasing ZANU PF and Mugabe and as a way as I say of protecting their interests in Zimbabwe.
AB: We have some very key individuals: Billy Rautenbach’s name of course is always going to stand out because he is a known functionary of ZANU PF.
JM: Well he has been part of ZANU PF at least financially for many years and it is also because of ZANU PF’s facilitation that he has been able to do a lot of business in Zimbabwe in the mining sector but also in the agricultural sector and also linked to the Development Trust of Zimbabwe as well as more asset grabbing in the DRC, again in the mining sector and elsewhere. He will make sure that ZANU PF doesn’t run out of money. You and I know that some of that money never really went to ZANU PF; it went into individual pockets. I know for certain that one of the sins that may have been committed by one of the ministers, if not two of the ministers in Mugabe’s government before the Government of National Unity was that they had pocketed the money that had been given to them for ZANU PF just before the 1995 elections as well as before the 2000 elections and they were punished. But this funding by these companies really complicates the situation in Zimbabwe in the sense that they are propping up a demagogue of a political party, they are propping up a political party which is a violator of human rights, which is corrupt, which is dictatorial and which has wrecked the economy of this country.
AB: What always strikes me as so interesting is how these companies are able to get away with it. Many of them are companies that are listed overseas, listed in Britain and yet, despite the Mugabe regime being so strictly bound by international restrictive measures and sanctions, these sorts of things are still happening. It must be because clearly when there’s business interests involved, people are turning a blind eye. What else could it be?
JM: No that is correct. The assessment in these very countries that have imposed restrictive measures and sanctions against Zimbabwe, when they come across this information that they do on a daily basis, they look the other way. It is possible that they may actually do that in the interest of their own nation. They argue for example that if we stop this funding by these private companies and Mugabe turns around and nationalises the 400 British companies, who will lose the most? And it is the British who will lose most. So eventually they simply say that it’s better to let it go, let’s turn a blind eye to it; after all the people who are really on the receiving end of Mugabe’s dictatorial rulership are not really our people, they are really his own people.
AB: That’s scary then because it seems to me that part of ZANU PF’s strength over the years has grown because these sorts of dealings.
JM: That is a very strong possibility; one of the reasons for that is that some of the support, some of the financial support that has been given to ZANU PF has actually ended up being frozen in European countries, not just the UK but even on mainland Europe in the accounts that had been identified by the officials responsible for the restrictive measures imposed by the European Union. So some of that money is locked up, some of that money has been diverted into private bank accounts, offshore accounts I might add – not in Zimbabwe, not even in the UK and to trace all these monies will be quite clearly tough Alex.
AB: The worry of course is that we are now heading towards another election period; we can see very clearly the results of the 2008 election that ZANU PF was able to secure with this hundred million dollar ‘loan’ as it’s been called. If we have these sorts of business transactions still happening in the background, can we be worried that another multimillion dollar loan could be secured by the regime to once again cling to power in the next elections?
JM: There’s a possibility of that but from where I stand it is not even going to be necessary for ZANU PF to secure that kind of money, all they need to do now is to divert some of the money from the Marange diamonds which I believe they are doing on a daily basis and they will use that money to create a war chest, they will use that money to do massive vote buying. They will buy people tractors, generators, they will buy them all kinds of things in order for the people to vote for them. My own reading of the Zimbabwean situation is that is that people will receive these things, people will receive this funding, and the maize seed and the fertilizer and still not vote for Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF. The real fear we have Alex is that those funds from overseas might be used to create a war chest which will be used to prop up the securocrats, the security forces in Zimbabwe, the army, the police, the CIO, the air force, to actually do violence against people who do not support Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF. If that happens I think there’s going to be mayhem in the country, in fact we may be thrown straight back to June 2008.
AB: That’s a scary prospect. We know that in 2008 there was that arms shipment in that Chinese ship that had docked in South Africa at the same time that the 100 million dollar loan happened. We are realistic then that also, with ZANU PF’s very close ties to the Chinese that once again this is a possibility?
JM: Oh that’s a very strong possibility and now, except that the prime minister’s visit to China may have resulted in China softening its dependence on ZANU PF as the gateway into Zimbabwe, the only gateway into Zimbabwe. It is also very possible also that as a result of the Government of National Unity, China may actually find it reasonable to say ‘no shipment of arms, no funding of the military or by way of weaponry should be sent to Zimbabwe until the Government of National Unity has been concluded and straightforward government is in power’. They have been approached, the Chinese have been approached on that and they have said they are not taking any sides but they are not going to break their relations with the government of Zimbabwe but as I talk to you now, the MDC is making major inroads in talking to the Chinese, in talking to the Japanese and in talking to other eastern countries, south east Asian countries and trying to reduce the support that ZANU PF has received or is going to receive from the east.
AB: Well that was political analyst Professor John Makumbe. That brings us to the end of tonight’s show, join me at the same time next week, I’ll be hosting Part Three of the series. I’ll be looking at the on-going multinational corporate cooperation with the Robert Mugabe regime despite international sanctions and the dismal human rights record of the ZANU PF leadership. That’s all coming up on Diaspora Diaries next week for now though it’s time for me to say good night. Don’t forget you can email me at alex@swradioafrica.com at any time or just contact me on Twitter @abell88 .For now though, it’s time for me to say goodbye, join me at the same time next week.
CONSTITUTION WATCH
2012
[24th August
2012]
Draft Constitution Incorporating Approved ZANU-PF
Amendments
Veritas has had permission to
distribute it
Veritas has sent out the COPAC Draft Constitution and is now sending
it out with the amendments that ZANU-PF want to include.
The constitution is of such general interest and has been so long
awaited, that we are making an exception to our general policy of not sending
out attachments with our bulletins.
We are sending it out zipped as the unzipped version is over 558 KB –
if anyone needs it in an unzipped version please request from
veritas@mango.zw
Download the zipped version here
Veritas makes every effort to ensure
reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information
supplied
COURT WATCH 15/2012
[24th August 2012]
Supreme Court on Vacation - Cases Pending
The Supreme Court is on its mid-term
vacation which will come to an end on 2nd September. It is hoped that when it resumes it will be
able to clear the backlog of cases waiting to be heard. This bulletin lists cases of particular
interest that are waiting to go before the Supreme Court. Only one case has been given a hearing
date. The other cases are still to be
given dates.
State v Mwonzora
et al on 4th October
This case is set down hearing before five judges on Thursday 4th
October. It is the case in which Douglas
Mwonzora and twenty-one of his Nyanga constituents have challenged the
constitutionality of their prosecution on charges of public violence. After an MDC-T
rally in Nyanga, Mr Mwonzora and his co-accused were arrested and detained in
February 2011, on allegations of public violence. Their release on bail was delayed until 12th
March 2011 by the State’s use of section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act and the subsequent unsuccessful
State appeal. At a later remand hearing
the magistrate granted a defence request to refer constitutional
issues to the Supreme Court: inhuman and degrading treatment, violation of
constitutional rights to liberty and protection of the law, and the
unconstitutionality of section 121(3) of the CPE Act. [For more details see
Court Watch 3/2011 and
Court Watch 9/2012]
Provincial
Governors Case: President Persists in Attempt to Appeal
Reminder: The Prime
Minister brought a case against the President in the High Court for unilaterally
appointing provincial governors in 2010 in breach of the Constitution’s
provision requiring the Prime Minister’s agreement to such appointments. The President tried to block the case with a
technical objection that the Prime Minister should have obtained, but did not,
the leave of the High Court before launching a case against the President. Justice Chiweshe, citing a previous Supreme
Court case, dismissed this argument and on 24th July refused leave to appeal
against his decision.
As expected
[see Court Watch
14/2012 of 28th July] the President,
as permitted by law, made a second application for leave to appeal to the
Supreme Court. This application, made on
3rd August, will be decided by a Supreme Court judge. The Prime Minister has filed papers opposing
the granting of leave to appeal, and a ruling is now awaited.
If leave to
appeal is granted, the President’s technical objection will go before the
Supreme Court for hearing. If that
happens and if the President’s technical objection is then upheld by the Supreme
Court itself, the Prime Minister would have to start all over again by applying
to the High Court for leave to initiate the case against the President. As the case dates from 2010 and has taken so
long to reach this stage, it would, perhaps, be fruitless to try starting all
over again – the GPA will have ended before finalisation could be hoped for.
If the Supreme
Court judge refuses leave to appeal, Justice Chiweshe’s decision dismissing
the technical objection stands, and the
High Court will be able to get on with hearing the Prime Minister’s case against
the President. If this happens, there
may be some hope the case will finish before the end of the GPA. A point may then be made, but it will still
be too late to be of much practical relevance.
Mutambara v Ncube
– MDC Leadership Dispute
Two High Court
judges have ruled that Welshman Ncube, not Arthur Mutambara, is the lawful
President of the MDC – Justice Kamocha on 15th December 2011 and Justice Patel
on 12th June 2012. Both judges rejected
the Mutambara camp’s attack on the validity of Professor Ncube's election at the
party’s congress in January 2011. Both
decisions have been temporarily neutralised by the noting of appeals to the
Supreme Court by Professor Mutambara and his supporters. A hearing is awaited.
Long Standing
Constitutional Cases Awaiting Dates for Hearing
The following cases, referred to the
Supreme Court for judgements on constitutional challenges arising from cases in
lower court, are still awaiting hearing dates.
These cases have been outlined in previous Court Watch bulletins
indicated below
[back copies of Court Watches available from veritas@mango.zw]
Freedom of
expression cases
These are criminal cases where the
accused have questioned the constitutionality of provisions of the Criminal Law
Code – section 31 [spreading falsehoods]; section 33 [undermining the authority of
or insulting the President] ; and section 96 [criminal defamation]. These provisions have been
frequently invoked to prosecute journalists, civil rights activists and artistic
protest. In one case the police also used section 42 –
causing offence to persons of a particular race, tribe, colour, creed, etc. In another [the MMPZ case], the defence
lawyer said that section 33 “infringes the constitutional rights to
freedom of expression and protection of the law, being couched in such wide and
vague terms that it has a chilling effect on freedom of expression because it is
not clear to people what they can and cannot say without courting arrest and
prosecution.” This is true of all
the sections cited above.
· The
Chronicle editor and a
journalist [Brezhnev Malaba, now former editor, and Nduduzo Tshuma]. In this case the State prosecuted on a
criminal defamation charge based on a story alleging corrupt conduct by senior
police officers.
[Court Watch 2/2011]
· Owen Maseko This case raised the constitutionality of
prosecuting Mr Maseko for his murals depicting the Gukurahundi at the Bulawayo
Art Gallery. The charge was insulting
the President. He was also charged for
causing offense to persons of a particular tribe. [Court Watch
2/2011]
· The
Standard editor and
journalist [Nevanji Madanhire, editor, and Patience Nyangove] This was another criminal defamation
charge. [Court Watch
4/2011]
· The
Standard editor and
journalist State v Nevanji Madanhire, editor ,and
Nqaba Ntshazi] Criminal defamation
again. [Court Watch
6/2012]
· Media Monitoring
Project staff members [Gilbert Mabuza,
Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda. The
arrests were made during a training workshop – several charges were brought – an
illegal gathering under POSA; participating in a gathering with intent to
promote public violence or breaches of the peace under Criminal Law Code section
37; but these were dropped, leaving only
the charge of undermining of the President. [Court Watch
6/2012]
· MDC-T
MP,
Pishai Muchauraya. A case alleging undermining/insulting the
President by colourful references to his advanced age and state of health. [Court Watch
6/2012]
· MDC-T
MP, Lynette
Karenyi. Another case alleging
undermining/insulting the President. [Court Watch
2/2012]
Cases Challenging
State Blocking Bail
Section 121(3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act enables a
prosecutor to delay the release of an accused person who has been granted bail
by a court, simply by telling the court that the State wishes to appeal against
the grant of bail. Repeated misuse of
this power by prosecutors has been criticised by the High Court, the legal
profession and civil society.
[See Court Watch
8/2012 and Court Watch 9/2012]. It has also led to
MDC-T Chief Whip, Innocent Gonese MP,
tabling in Parliament of a Private Member’s Bill, currently stalled, to repeal
the section.
MDC-T Director
General Toendepi Shonhe This case, raising the constitutionality of
section 121(3) was referred to the Supreme Court in 2009. It has still not been heard, nether has a
date been set. [The same point has also
been raised more recently, in conjunction with separate constitutional issues,
in two other pending cases already
mentioned above: State v Douglas Mwonzora et al [to be heard on 4th
October] and State v Lynette Karenyi.
Despite being granted bail by a magistrate, MP Mwonzora was detained for
another 24 days, and MP Karenyi spent Christmas 2011 behind bars after her
arrest for allegedly insulting the President in a speech at a party rally.
Case Challenging
State’s Unfair Revival of an Old Criminal Charge
MDC-T Deputy
Minister Tongai Matutu challenged the
constitutionality of the State’s 2011
revival of a 2005 case against him for insulting the President in circumstances
in which he alleges revival is unjustified.
[Court Watch
6/2012]
Case claiming
compensation for torture: Jaure v Minister of Defence
A former soldier
seeks $1.5 million compensation for alleged unjust imprisonment and torture
during 277 days of confinement in army detention barracks in
2008-2009. Unusually, the plaintiff has gone direct to
the Supreme Court instead of bringing a claim for damages in the High Court
[Court Watch 6/2012].
More Recent
Constitutional Cases Awaiting Hearing Dates
[not previously
mentioned in Court Watch]
Transmission of
HIV Three cases are pending
before the court involving persons charged with contravening section 79 of the
Criminal Law Code. The section is headed
“deliberate transmission of HIV”; it
penalises not only transmission of HIV by someone who knows that he or he is
infected, but also by someone who knows there is a real risk or possibility that
he or she is infected.
The defence contention is
that section 79 is unconstitutional and invalid, because it is too wide, vague
and generally worded; discriminates against HIV positive people in a manner not
acceptable in a democratic society; and criminalises sexual encounters to which
the complainants have consented. These
cases have, at defence request, been referred to the Supreme Court by
magistrates in terms of section 24 of the Constitution.
Criminal nuisance – another WOZA case On 7th February
2012, members of WOZA were charged with criminal nuisance contrary to section 46
of the Criminal Law Code, specifically with “conduct likely materially to interfere with the ordinary comfort,
convenience, peace or quiet of the public or likely to create a nuisance or
obstruction”. The prosecution says that
ten
WOZA members, while displaying placards and distributing fliers in Bulawayo
streets, disturbed the free flow of both pedestrian and vehicle traffic. On 20th June 2012 a Bulawayo magistrate, at
the request of WOZA lawyers, referred to the Supreme Court the question whether
or not their constitutional right to freedom of assembly had been violated. Their argument was that the Constitution
permits derogation from this constitutional right only in terms of a “law” meeting certain requirements [Constitution, section 21]. The defence contends that the Code’s
provision cited is so wide, general and uncertain in scope that it is not a
law.
ZBC listener’s
licence fees In the midst of ZBC’s
current blitz against unlicensed listeners, Harare magistrates, at the accuseds’ request, have referred to the Supreme Court two
prosecutions of unlicensed possessors of TV sets. The question for the court’s decision is
whether constitutional rights are infringed by the Broadcasting Services Act’s
provision compelling everyone who possesses a radio or television receiver to
buy an annual licence from ZBC, whether or not the receiver is used to receive
ZBC broadcasts. The accused persons
allege violation of various constitutional rights: freedom of expression,
freedom of association and protection from discrimination.
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied