http://www.mg.co.za/
HARARE, ZIMBABWE Dec 07 2010 11:32
Zimbabwe's
central bank will lay off 74% of its workers as part of a drive
to return
focus to its core role as a monetary authority, the bank's chief
said in a
statement on Tuesday.
Staff levels at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
grew more than 10-fold
between 2003 and 2008 as it spearheaded a drive to
pull the economy out of a
severe crisis many blamed on President Robert
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono told a parliamentary
committee the bank would lay
off at least 1 600 employees, but state media
said he had requested and had
been granted permission to discuss the
retrenchment costs in a private
session.
"We are looking at
retrenching 74% of the central bank's staff," Gono said.
"I would like to
say it is not one of the easiest tasks as it is going to be
one of the
largest retrenchments in the history of the country by a single
institution," he said, adding the bank had cut employees' compensation
proposals by two-thirds.
Gono was not immediately available for
comment on Tuesday.
Denials
A unity government formed by Mugabe and
rival Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai 22 months ago adopted the use of
foreign currencies, including
South Africa's rand and the US dollar, helping
stabilise the economy and
stemming hyperinflation.
Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) blames Gono, a close
Mugabe ally, of
contributing to Zimbabwe's economic collapse and has
demanded the
appointment of a new central bank governor.
Mugabe, in power since
Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980, denies
his Zanu-PF is
responsible for ruining one of Africa's most promising
economies and has
staunchly resisted pressure to sack Gono.
The 86-year-old president says
the Southern Africa country's economy was
sabotaged by his domestic
opponents and was also wrecked by sanctions
imposed by Western powers angry
over his seizures of white-owned farms for
redistribution to black
Zimbabweans. -- Reuters
http://af.reuters.com
Tue Dec 7, 2010 6:24am GMT
By
Bate Felix
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said on
Monday that elections could not take place in his country
without reforms
and a constitutional review, despite President Robert
Mugabe's threat to
call one next year.
Tsvangirai formed a
power-sharing government with Mugabe after disputed 2008
elections, and both
promised to work together to reform the constitution and
organise a
referendum to approve it before new elections.
The power-sharing deal
ended months of crisis in the southern African
country which had been on the
brink of collapse, but it has since been
plagued by rifts following Mugabe's
refusal to consult Tsvangirai over key
appointments and policy
decisions.
Mugabe has said there is no need to extend the life of the
coalition, which
is up for review in February, and looks likely to call
elections in mid-2011
without the new constitution that Zimbabwe's Western
donors are asking for.
"It is not possible to have elections in June next
year because we need to
have a referendum first," Tsvangirai told Reuters in
an interview in
Brussels.
"I don't think at the moment you can
conduct an election," he said, adding
that the country could slide back into
the crisis and violence seen in 2008.
Analysts say a rushed election
without political reforms, including a new
constitution guaranteeing basic
rights, would unfairly favour Mugabe and his
ZANU-PF party, who have held
power since independence from Britain in 1980.
"One of the fundamental
issues we need to handle is the issue of violence.
All elections so far have
been conducted in a manner that is very violent
... this is violence that is
state-sponsored," Tsvangirai said.
"When the police, army, militia, war
veterans are used to intimidate,
coerce, and cause torture and death to the
people, that is the kind of
violence we need to contain," he
added.
Tsvangirai said before any elections are held, the parties must
accept a
roadmap, agree on a constitution, organise a referendum and set up
a
functioning electoral commission.
"Once the roadmap is there, it
will define the end of the coalition. The
sooner we have one party in power
with a clear mandate from the people, the
better," he said.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
07 December,
2010 12:58:00 By Brendan Boyle - PoliticsLIVE
South African
opposition party, Democratic Alliance plans to haul Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe
before the International Criminal Court if he does not agree
to step down in
return for amnesty.
DA leader Athol Trollip told reporters the threat to
prosecute Mugabe for
human rights abuses including torture would be the last
option of a
five-part plan to speed up a peaceful resolution of the
Zimbabwe's political
crisis.
"The DA will, where appropriate, exert
legal and political pressure on
Zimbabwe itself," Trollip
said.
"Until President Robert Mugabe is removed from politics, possibly
through an
amnesty agreement for him and his henchmen, free and fair
elections cannot
be staged. Should President Mugabe fail to commit to such
an agreement, the
DA will seek to bring him before the International
Criminal Court to be
tried for human rights abuses and acts of torture
committed during his
rule."
Without the protection of his position
and his government, Mugabe could be
held to account for atrocities in
Matabeleland soon after he came to power
as well as for human rights abuses
since a referendum on his constitutional
proposals in 2000 demonstrated the
extent to which he had lost popular
support.
Mugabe was widely
reported to be considering retirement with an indemnity
from prosecution
about six years ago when former Liberian leader Charles
Taylor was arrested
in Nigeria, where he had been living under the terms of
a 2003 amnesty deal,
and ended up on trial in The Hague.
South Africa's support for Zimbabwe's
government of national unity had
thrown Mugabe a political lifeline, Trollip
said.
"By abusing state resources for political gain, retaining control
of key
components of the state, such as the military, and failing to comply
with
the provisions of the GPA (global political agreement), President
Mugabe
has, using a combination of violence, rhetoric and deft political
maneuvering, staged a successful political comeback," he
said.
Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in
1980, was
reported this week to have told President Jacob Zuma he had lost
his
appetite for power sharing and wanted to return to running the country
without any regard to Morgan Tsvangerai's Movement for Political
Change.
The country is scheduled to hold elections early next year after
agreement
on a new constitution, but Mugabe has baulked at implementing
almost all the
obligations of the GPA, which was supported by South Africa
and other
countries in the region.
"The South African government
needs to move towards playing a central role
in positively shaping
Zimbabwe’s political fortunes and galvanising support
from SADC and the
(African Union) to compel the GNU to work towards
democratic reform,"
Trollip said.
He said the DA would launch a campaign early next year to
draw attention to
Zimbabwe's plight and would update its own 2009 "roadmap
to democracy in
Zimbabwe".
The DA would crank up the pressure on
South Africa as well as regional and
continental organisations to ensure
that free and fair elections are held
soon.
Trollip said the party
would, at the same time, increase the pressure on
Zuma to deal more
effectively with the Zimbabwean coalition partners to
ensure that all of
them stick to their promises.
He said the DA would continue to support
targeted sanctions against
Zimbabwean leaders until there was concrete
evidence of significant movement
towards a credible election.
The
DA's final tactic would be to exert legal and political pressure on
Zimbabwe
itself, including the threat of Migabe's prosecution. - Times Live
http://www.swradioafrica.com
by Irene Madongo
07 December
2010
The government has been forced to freeze its controversial
Indiginisation
law after finally admitting that it is discouraging badly
needed foreign
investment. However it’s been suggested that the law should
be completely
scrapped as no one will ever be prepared to invest in Zimbabwe
if there is
just a temporary freeze. Once an investor has helped rebuild the
economy the
freeze could be lifted and they would be again faced with giving
up half of
their investment.
The Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act came into force in March and
states that foreign-owned
companies must give up more than half of their
shares to locals. It was
spearheaded by ZANU PF’s Saviour Kasukuwere, the
Minister of Indigenisation.
Despite warnings that it would damage rather
then help the economy,
Kasukuwere and Robert Mugabe maintained there was no
going back on the
issue.
However on Monday, Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube
told
Newsday that Cabinet had agreed to waive the Indigenisation law, for
the
time being, after noting its discouraging effect on foreign capital.
Zimbabwe’s fragile economy desperately needs investment and the law is
widely blamed for destroying the country’s investment profile.
“Until
such a time when the economy recovers and rebuilds capacity, it’s not
possible for every sector to achieve 51% (minimum indigenisation equity),”
Ncube said.
“We need foreign investors with the balance sheet and the
capacity. If
locals had the capacity, would we struggle to build new power
stations or to
rebuild our railways and roads? But the capacity is not
available locally.
That’s why we have to engage foreign investors,” he
explained.
Since its inception, the Indigenisation law has been attacked
by both
foreigners and Zimbabweans, including the Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai,
who said its chases away potential investors from the
country.
Even local businessmen condemned the law, saying it is designed
to enrich
Mugabe’s cronies and will wreck the economy.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Chengetayi Zvauya
Tuesday, 07 December 2010
15:33
HARARE - Harare residents have demanded the setting up of a
commission of
inquiry into allegations of widespread corruption involving
the
controversial Local Government, Urban and Rural Development minister
Ignatius Chombo.
Hundreds of Harare residents marched through the
streets of Harare, Tuesday,
denouncing Chombo and called on the Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and
parliament to probe the embattled minister on
his acquisition of over 100
stands and houses from council.
The
residents also lambasted Harare mayor, Muchadeyi Masunda for his
apparent
reluctance to pursue investigations of corrupt land purchases in
the
council.
The march, organised by the Combined Harare Resident Association
(CHRA) saw
residents marching from Town House and besieged Africa Unity
Square. They
were dancing and belting out songs denouncing Chombo saying he
is a corrupt
minister.
CHRA chairperson Simbarashe Moyo delivered a
petition to Tsvangirai’s office
and parliament demanding a full
investigation of the properties and wealth
linked to Chombo, who is a close
ally of President Robert Mugabe.
Moyo addressed the demonstrators and
told them that they were also concerned
with the way Chombo was running the
affairs of the city. He said Chombo was
dismissing elected councillors who
were investigating his acquisition of
vast tracts of prime land in the
city.
''The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government should
also
commission public hearings on Chombo as residents strongly feel that he
has
a case to answer. Residents call upon the principals to the Government
of
National Unity to look into Minister Chombo's issues,'' said
Moyo.
In the petition, residents also demanded a probe into the
acquisition of
council land by businessman Phillip Chiyangwa.
“We
refer the incriminating findings of the Harare Land Audit which saw
Harare
councillors being arrested instead of Minister Chombo and Chiyangwa.
We
refer to the fact that the Harare land audit report has been kept under
wraps and out of reach of the public eye.
“We refer Mayor Muchadeyi
Masunda’s reluctance to support the elected
councillors' resolution to carry
out further investigations into Minister
Chombo’s alleged unprocedural
acquisition of hundreds of hectares of land,”
reads part of the
petition.
Chombo's wealth, which includes dozens of vehicles, houses and
stands was
published in the media following his divorce with wife Marian.
Details of
Chombo’s wealth are contained in his divorce papers at the High
Court.
Chombo earns about US$500 a month as a government minister.
http://www.radiovop.com/
07/12/2010
15:47:00
Harare, December 07, 2010 – Zimbabwe Speaker of Parliament,
Lovemore Moyo,
and national chairperson of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has
been elected the new leader of the Southern Africa
Development Community
(SADC) Parliamentary Forum.
Moyo, who is the
MDC T legislator for Matopo in Matabeleland South, was
elected on Friday 3
December 2010, at a gathering of regional legislators
from the Southern
African Development Community.
In a statement celebrating his elevation,
the MDC T said on Tuesday the
election of Moyo showed SADC’s confidence in
the MDC and the people of
Zimbabwe.
“He becomes the first Zimbabwean
chairperson on the regional grouping, a
feat that demonstrates the MDC’s
requisite role and impeccable credentials
in fostering regional cohesion,
unity and development,” read part of the MDC
T statement to the
media.
“The honour conferred on Honourable Moyo on behalf of the people
bears
testament to the MDC’s values which emphasize the sanctity of life,
solidarity and togetherness. The MDC is generally satisfied that the conduct
and behaviour of those deployed to stations of government clearly
demonstrates the capacity of the party to work with Zimbabweans in the full
realization of real change and a new beginning in people’s lives. As such,
the MDC has demonstrated and exhibited alternative politics of humility,
serving leadership and accountability, that makes the different,” it
said.
Moyo was elected the Speaker of the House of Assembly in August
2008,
beating Zanu (PF) and MDC M, Paul Themba Nyathi, prompting Zanu (PF)
spin-doctor Tsholotsho legislator Jonathan Moyo to launch bid challenging
his election on the grounds that parliamentary rules were violated by MDC-T
legislators.
Judgment on the case has been deferred.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
07
December, 2010 07:45:00 -
Bulawayo - Zanu (PF) national's new rogue
chairman, Simon Khaya-Moyo has
urged the country security forces to crash
journalists who criticize them.
Addressing Zanu (PF) supporters in Umguza
constituency at the weekend at a
meeting organised by the local legislator
and country's Chief diamond geezer
Obert "Chiadzwa-Marange" Mpofu,
Khaya-Moyo warned journalists who criticise
the country’s police, soldiers
and central intelligence organization saying
they won’t be
tolerated.
“In some countries if you criticise security forces you won’t
last a day you
will be crashed, killed and destroyed. I warn journalists in
the private
media to stop this, because it won’t be tolerated and we will
hunt them and
kill them.
“You hear them talk about press freedom.
What press freedom?” Asked
Khaya-Moyo.
Khaya-Moyo's sentiments come
at a time when there is serious police
crackdown on journalists. The
Standard senior reporter Nqobani Ndlovu spent
nine days in prison before his
editor Nevanji Madanhire was locked up in
police cells.
Media
Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe Chapter chairperson
Loughty
Dube blasted Khaya-Moyo saying he did not expect such a malicious
statement
from a party chairman.
"This is a malicious statement from a senior party
officials, which is meant
to create alarm and also endangering journalists
at a time when the country
is planning for next year elections.
“We
condemn such reckless statements,” said Dube.
Since the talk about
possible elections by President Robert Mugabe, the
harassment of journalists
by police has increased.
Earlier this month, freelance journalists,
Nkosana Dlamini and Andreson
Manyere were arrested in Harare and held
overnight before being charged with
"criminal nuisance."
On the same
day, another freelance journalist, Sydney Saize, was beaten up,
robbed and
injured in Mutare.
A Masvingo journalist was on Sunday severely beaten up
at a Zanu (PF)
provincial meeting attended by Moyo and two party's politburo
members and
ministers Webster Shamu and Stan Mudenge.
Meanwhile,
Mines and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu says he is
proud to be
“President Robert Mugabe’s son” as the octogenarian leader is
the father of
the liberation struggle.
Mpofu, who is Zanu PF MP for Umguza, was
addressing supporters at
Nyamandlovu on Saturday where he donated an
ambulance and 30 tonnes of maize
seed.
The minister sent tongues
wagging last month when he reportedly signed off a
letter he had written to
President Mugabe as “your ever obedient son”.
“Joshua Nkomo brought
liberation to this country, that is why he is called
Father Zimbabwe; and
President Mugabe also brought the liberation of this
country. When you tell
other people that you are their son they jump and say
they have found a
scoop,” said Mpofu.
He said he would not be swayed by attacks from people
who did not know who
their fathers were.
“We are proud of that. I am
proud to be born to people who liberated this
country. When they sent us to
distribute land, we went in with the war
veterans and look how beautiful the
people are because they are benefiting
from the programme.”
Mpofu
facilitated to have his constituency benefit from a Commercial Bank of
Zimbabwe scheme, which provided an additional 30 tonnes of seed after he had
already donated 30 tonnes.
The move is largely seen as a campaign
strategy in preparation for possible
elections next year.
He thanked
the people for electing him MP and begged them to repeat the same
feat in
the next election saying he would “collapse and die” were he to lose
elections.
“I am very grateful to the people who voted me into power;
that is why I am
doing this. Please do not disappoint me because I will
suffer from blood
pressure and I will collapse and die.”
He said his
donation would benefit all people in the constituency, including
members of
other political parties whom he said would realise how beneficial
it was to
support Zanu PF.
“We are not going to discriminate on grounds of
political affiliation. The
seed will be distributed to everyone. The
ambulance will also serve
everyone. It is not everyone who knows the correct
path at the beginning but
they will realise with time the advantages of
joining Zanu PF.
However, we are appealing to authorities not to charge
exorbitant fees for
the ambulance so that everyone benefits,” he
said.
Mpofu also paid school fees for students from a poor background in
the
constituency.
“We have started building Nganda School and the
mortuary. If you think I am
buying votes, then you are free to come in and
make a better offer. I have
set the standards and you have to beat them for
people to vote you,” said
Mpofu.
In an apparent reference to Zapu,
Mpofu warned war veterans against working
with negative forces.
“You are
enlightened people, having sacrificed a lot in the struggle for
liberation.
It would be very sad for you to work with forces that would take
us
backwards,” said Mpofu.
Two weeks ago, Mpofu officially opened a
state-of-the-art clinic in
Nyamandlovu equipped with computers.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
7 December 2010
Newsday’s Masvingo correspondent, Tatenda
Chitagu, claimed on Tuesday he was
assaulted on Sunday by ZANU PF youths at
the instigation of politburo member
Dzikamai Mavhaire.
Chitagu was
ejected from the great hall of the Masvingo Technical College,
where he was
covering an inter-district conference of the party. The scribe
told SW Radio
Africa that Mavhaire instructed the youths to throw him out of
the meeting
as party chairman Simon Khaya Moyo was addressing the gathering.
‘During
Moyo’s address he got to a point were he raised issues with the way
the
private media was covering some events in the country, especially
violence
and security related stories.
‘At this juncture, I saw Mavhaire turn his
head to face me and immediately
motioned some youths to approach him. This
is when they were instructed to
eject me and all this happened in full view
of other senior party members
like Stan Mudenge (Higher Education minister)
and Lovemore Matuke,’ Chitagu
said.
The Newsday correspondent said he
complied with the order to leave but was
surprised to see the youths
pursuing him all the way to the main gate of the
college.
‘I knew
something was wrong when they followed me to the gate. I tried to
run away
but they caught up with me. They demanded my notebook but I refused
to part
ways with it and this is when they started to manhandle me. They
punched and
pushed me to the ground and this is when I decided to save
myself and hand
over the notebook,’ Chitagu added.
He added; ‘You ask yourself; would
these people do this to me without the
explicit orders of their leaders -
no. And the fact there is history between
me and Mavhaire makes it more
convincing that he had something to do with
it.’
Recently, Chitagu
authored a story in which he said two ZANU PF factions in
Masvingo were
headed for a showdown in the battle to take over control of
the country’s
sole lithium producer, Bikita Minerals.
‘There is a group of war
collaborators which belongs to one faction of ZANU
PF that is fighting
Mavhaire to take control of the company. Mavhaire is the
major shareholder
in this company and so when I sought comment from him
about this fierce
battle for control of the company he pleaded with me not
to publish the
story. So I guess he has never forgiven me for exposing the
fight,’
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
07 December 2010
Police have
seized shortwave radios in Binga, in what appears to be a
countrywide
campaign to stifle the voice of the exiled independent media
ahead of
elections.
SW Radio Africa’s Bulawayo correspondent, Lionel Saungweme,
said on Tuesday
that police and officers from the notorious Central
Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) have been confiscating shortwave radios from
villagers in
Lusulu, Binga. Saungweme explained that police are going around
asking for
receipts for the radios, seizing them under the pretence that
they are
stolen. Jabuba Ward councilor, Themba Kujulu, meanwhile was
arrested when he
refused to hand over his radio, saying police had to prove
it was stolen if
they wanted to seize it.
“Some villagers, mainly MDC
activists, are also being told that it is a
serious offence to be listening
to outside broadcasts, so it’s just an
excuse,” Saungweme said.
The
situation in Binga is the latest in a countrywide police campaign to get
rid
of radios, used by information starved Zimbabweans to receive broadcasts
from exiled radio stations like SW Radio Africa. Five homes in Bikita West
were raided two weeks ago and radio sets were seized, while Norbert Chinyike
and Charles Mhizha, two MDC supporters, were arrested after radios were
found in their possession. They were later released without being
charged.
Shortly before that, police searched the offices of the NGO
Democratic
Councils Forum in Gweru and arrested an employee after
discovering radio
sets that were awaiting distribution in the rural areas.
Meanwhile Jastone
Mazhale, the president of the Gwanda Agenda pressure
group, recently
reported that police searched his offices and questioned him
about radios.
He said the police told him they were acting on orders from
headquarters in
Harare.
In October, radios that were distributed to
rural residents by NGOs were
seized by police in Mashonaland East. A
representative of the human rights
group ZimRights said police, accompanied
by members of the CIO, carried out
an operation in Murehwa district,
confiscating radios that had been
distributed by NGOs and threatening the
residents who were found with them.
Media rights groups have expressed
growing concern about the campaign, with
Reporters Without Borders saying it
is an effort to “censor information and
restrict individual
freedom.”
“We condemn this large-scale censorship campaign being carried
out in rural
areas of the country where access to news is already limited
and where the
authorities deliberately try to keep the media presence to a
minimum,”
Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard
said.
“These measures are designed to limit the population’s access to
freely-reported news and to ensure that the views expressed by
pro-government media are not challenged by the views of independent and
opposition media,” Julliard added. “This is an attack on media
diversity.”
The campaign to clamp down on access to the independent media
comes as
Mugabe has once again demonstrated his refusal to abide by the
terms of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA), blaming the MDC-T for the
existence of so
called ‘pirate’ radio stations. Mugabe is quoted by the
state media has
saying the contentious issue of unilateral governors’
appointments will not
be discussed “until we see a commitment on the part of
the MDC-T to end
sanctions and pirate radio stations.”
The MDC-T
leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has urged his party and
international governments not to recognise either provincial governors or
ambassadors unilaterally appointed by Mugabe this year. The appointments
were done with no consultation with Mugabe’s partners in the coalition
government, in direct contravention of the GPA.
ZANU PF meanwhile has
repeatedly used the exiled radio stations and the
targeted sanctions against
the Mugabe regime as the scapegoats for not
honouring the GPA. Mugabe has
previously said he will make no “concessions”
to the MDC unless the targeted
restrictive measures are dropped and the
radio stations are closed, despite
the MDC having no authority to dictate
either of these terms.
http://www.radiovop.com
07/12/2010 14:58:00
Gokwe,
December 07, 2010 - Zanu (PF) youth and local leadership have
introduced
operation Jongwe ngarichengetwe Mumusha which means that Zanu
(PF) leader
President Robert Mugabe should be re-elected to head the
country.
Villagers of Charama, 100 kilometres south of Gokwe town
said they were
being harassed with the youth who were going around asking
what should be
done to a cock if it gets old.
The villagers said they
were expected to respond by saying an old cock
should be respected and kept
safe in the home.
Zanu (PF) uses a cock as its symbol and Mugabe, 87 next
February, is often
referred to as the cock (jongwe) by his
supporters.
“We are being harassed here.Vari kuti kana Jongwe rachembera
rino itwa sei?
(They are saying what happens to a cock when it’s old?)
Ukangoti rinobikwa
chete sandi kurohwa ikoko.(If you say it must be cooked
they (Zanu (PF)
youth) will beat you up). Zvanzi jongwe kana rachembera rino
fanirwa
kuchengetwa mumusha roremekedzwa.” (They say if a cock gets old it
must be
looked after in the home."
Movement for Democratic Challenge
(MDC) provincial chair Cephas Zimuti
confirmed that
intimidation was the
order of the day in Gokwe rural areas.
"We have received some of such
complaints not in Charama only but also in
Manoti where there is an army
base. However this is not going to affect us
because our people know that
intimidation is some political parties' style
of campaigning. We are telling
our supporters to follow what they are being
forced to do so as to save
their lives," he said.
Mugabe and MDC leader and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai have called for
fresh elections next year although there are
fears from civic society that
the political atmosphere may not be conducive
for a free and fair election.
http://zimbabwenewsnetwork.com/index.php?news=2943
By Miriam Mutepfa –Senior Rape Cases Investigator 05 December,
2010 04:00:00
Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono's advisor, Dr
Munyaradzi Kereke, Dr
Munyaradzi Kereke who allegedly raped a girl aged 11
is walking scot free
despite all medical and police records confirming this
heinous crime .
The case comes at a time when girls in Zimbabwe are at
high risk of being
raped by high profile HIV individuals who enjoy impunity
and are desperately
using blood of virgins as potential cure for HIV and
AIDS.
Information that this reporter has confirms that the girl was born
on 14th
of June 1999 and her mother resides in the United Kingdom.The girl
who fell
victim to rape is said to have a sister aged 15 who was abused by
the same
and reports are yet to confirm if her sister was also raped
.
A very close relative who has helped the girl through medical
examinations
and police escorts emailed Chief Executive Officer of Girl
Child Network
Worldwide ,Betty Makoni saying ,
"I have been on your
website and I see you help children who have been
sexually abused or raped
and let me bring to your attention the case of a
girl who went to her aunt`s
place in Vainona and at gunpoint she was raped
by Dr Munyaradzi Kereke. Her
eldest sister was also abused by the same man`.
Since this has happened
both girls have received threats from Dr
Munyaradzi Kereke. He has gone to
the house where the girls lives since
August 2010 and intimidated the
family of the girl.
Another relative who contacted Girl Child Network
Worldwide confirmed the
girl has refused to go to school because she is
afraid and so has been home
since September 2010.
GCNW Chief
Executive Officer Betty Makoni has since confirmed receiving
documents
containing a medical report as well as police report.
"These are the
documents needed to arrest this alleged rapist and I don’t
understand why he
is still walking scot free ", said Betty Makoni who has
handled many child
sexual abuse cases of high profile individuals whose
cases never get
anywhere near the courts and if they do,they get thrown out
for lack of
evidence or some other sinister reasons.
Zimbabwe is increasingly
becoming unsafe for girls with many rapists walking
scot free. The number of
girls raped per day in Zimbabwe averages 100 and
these are the only ones who
manage to break silence and report .
"In the likely event that Zimbabwe
courts don’t get to prosecute Dr
Munyaradzi Kereke ,it means many high
profile rapists will be on the loose
and this will result in many girls
being raped and silenced.With the HIV and
AIDS scourge this should be
classified as a crime against humanity and also
referred to regional or
international courts" said Betty Makoni.
In September this year it was
reported that Dr Munyaradzi Kereke who was at
one instance refered to as a
ghost worker unlawfully employed by Gideon
Gono, opened Rock Foundation
Medical Centre owned by himself which is now
open to the public after
receiving the necessary clearance from the
regulatory authorities among them
Harare City Council and the Health
Professions Authority of
Zimbabwe.
The project is said to have been subject to intense opposition
by some
neighbours who felt noise from the 24-hour medical facility would
disturb
the peace of the area.
"The centre is one of very few medical
facilities in Zimbabwe that accept
all medical aid cards while using the
latest equipment in the medical field.
The 24-hour facility boasts of an
ambulance service, pharmacy, dental unit
and a trauma management unit in
addition to doctors consulting rooms.The eye
unit is still to open to the
public together with the radiology centre and
the laboratory. The medical
centre offers free Internet services to patients
or people accompanying the
sick." said the reports.
After the medical facility was opened the doctor
turned paedophile was
quoted saying,
“We have been cleared to
operate. It’s a dream come true for me. I am happy
with
operations”.
In another development the first ever only online Newspaper
for women and
girls recently launched has confirmed that Dr Munyaradzi
Kereke becomes the
first high profile case to be listed on the Name and
Shame column which
seeks to establish the first list of all alleged rapists
who are a danger to
children and have been left to walk scotfree in
Zimbabwe.Zimbabwe does not
have a sex offenders register and this Name and
Shame column becomes the
first initiative towards a comprehensive sex
offenders` register.
http://www.afriquejet.com/
Harare, Zimbabwe - The Development
Bank for Southern Africa has approved
US$267 million in project financing
for Zimbabwe, the local media reported
Tuesday, quoting officials involved
in the deal. The Herald newspaper said
the bulk of the money had been
earmarked for road construction and mining
projects, and was already being
released to some of the projects.
It is one of the biggest foreign loans
Zimbabwe, which has been slapped with
Western sanctions over human rights,
has attracted in recent years.
Officials said several mining companies
would benefit from the credit line,
which will attract 2.5 percent
interest.
Among the road construction projects would be the dualisation
of the
highways from the Mozambique to Botswana borders and that from the
South
Africa to the Zambian borders.
Last week, the South African
bank released US$500,000 to fund feasibility
studies into the construction
of the highways.
The Industrial Development Corporation, a state-owned
Zimbabwean industrial
conglomerate, would be the bank's local
agent.
Most of Zimbabwe's roads are in a dilapidated state, and widely
blamed for
the high accidents on the country's highways.
Pana 07
december 2010
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Residents of Magunje, Hurungwe
are being denied access to seed and other
agricultural inputs at the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB) Hurungwe on party
lines. Magunje residents who
attended a community meeting organized by the
Centre for Community
Development In Zimbabwe (CCDZ).
The meeting was aimed at raising
awareness on electoral rights ahead of the
Constitutional Referendum and
Elections in 2011.Participants at this meeting
informed CCDZ on their being
denied seed maize because they belong to the
MDC. They cited the culprits
behind the acts as one Councillor Budwell
Chasara, a Mr. Musakanya who is an
Agritex Extension worker, Maravanyika who
is a war veteran, Bhunu a Zimbabwe
National Army (ZNA) officer and
Cornelious Koronga, a member of the ZANU PF
District Coordinating Committee
in Hurungwe.
CCDZ was informed that
the five are operating to openly exclude and deny any
purported supporter of
MDC for accessing seed. The residents who attended
the meeting were bitter
about this discrimination that blatantly violates
their Constitutionally
enshrined freedoms of association and conscience.
The option of buying
seed in retail shops is beyond the reach of many
ordinary Zimbabweans and
the GMB provides the cheaper alternative to the
majority of Zimbabwe’s
subsistence farmers such as those CCDZ met in
Magunje.
CCDZ denounces in
the strongest terms the use of agricultural implements as
a political tool
to punish those with divergent political views. We deplore
the flagrant
abuse of authority by the councilor and the Agritex worker.
CCDZ calls upon
the authorities such as the police and relevant ministries
to investigate
these allegations by the public and to deal decisively with
any wrong doing
and violations at GMB Hurungwe.
The meeting in Magunje was one in a
series aimed at raising awareness on
electoral rights and pre-conditions for
free and fair elections and the
constitutional referendum.
For more
inormation on our work, please feel free to contact our Programme
Officers
Tsungai Vere and Vellim Nyama on 04-776038 or visit our offices at
220
Samora Machel Ave, Eastlea, Harare.
Centre for Community Development
http://www.voanews.com
The organization
says the definition of "blood diamonds" should be modified
to include human
rights violations by government forces, as the current
definition refers to
rebel forces which it considers a loophole that has
allowed Harare to market
Marange diamonds internationally under Kimberley
Process
supervision
Sandra Nyaira | Washington 06 December 2010
A
Swiss international development organization has urged Bern government to
bar trade in diamonds from Zimbabwe's controversial Marange
field.
Bread For All, backed by Protestant churches in Switzerland, said
human
rights abuses continue to be reported in the Marange diamond zone,
diamonds
from which should not find a market in Switzerland.
The
organization said the definition of "blood diamonds" used by the
Kimberley
Process Certification Scheme should be updated to include human
rights
violations by forces of the state. The present definition refers to
rebel
forces, a loophole that has allowed Harare to market Marange diamonds
internationally under Kimberley supervision.
The Zimbabwe Advocacy
Office, local partner of Bread For All, reports
ongoing rights violations in
the Marange diamond field of Manicaland
province.
Diamonds from
Marange are currently barred from export until the Kimberly
Process has
achieved a consensus on the disposition of the Zimbabwean
stones. The
organization met in Israel last month but was unable to reach a
consensus on
Marange gems.
Zimbabwean Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has threatened to
sell diamonds with
or without Kimberley approval, saying Zimbabwe has met
all of the group's
requirements.
But political analyst Charles
Mangongera said Harare must first address
human rights abuses in Marange and
completely demilitarize the zone, among
other outstanding items in a work
plan to which it agreed at a 2009
Kimberley Process meeting.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/
07 December, 2010 11:21:00 Staff Reporter
ACCRA, – One
of Robert Mugabe’s close regional allies and former Namibian
President Sam
Nunjoma became a pile of embarrassment when students he was
addressing at
the University of Ghana laughed and jeered at him when he said
Mugabe was a
great leader.
Nunjoma said: ‘although Africa has finally attained Kwame
Nkrumah’s dream of
a free continent, it is yet to reach a healthy level of
intra-trade.’
Nunjoma went on to tell the students that political leaders
on all frontiers
stood side by side to wage the war against colonialism and
his mentioning of
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe as among other great leaders at
various frontiers,
elicited huge laughter and jeers from the students who
asked him to step
down from the podium.
For close to five minutes
Nunjoma stood silent and embarrassed as the rowdy
students took issues with
him at the mention of the Zimbabwean dictator as
great leader.
They
booed and jeered him and some threw stuff at the bemused former
Namibian
leader. Organisers then pleaded with the students for him to finish
his
lecture.
On resumption and taking note of the mood in the University
Hall, Nunjoma
said, "We made mistakes [as African leaders fighting
colonialism]," said
Nujoma, a reference to elimination of hunger and poverty
that continue to
grip the continent even after the successful elimination of
colonialism.
"It is now up to you young people to analyse [the mistakes
made] on how to
eliminate poverty and hunger [from the continent]," he said
in his lecture.
One student asked, with much bravado, the feelings of
Nujoma about Africa’s
tendency for some African dictators to hang onto power
when people want
change.
"We do not know how Kwame Nkrumah would have
felt now because he is not
here.
However, how do you feel as a
Pan-Africanist?" the student asked with such
gusto common in university
students.
Others wanted to know whether Nujoma does not have a sense of
guilt or
regret regarding the direction that Africa took on Pan-Africanism,
after all
he was among the first attendees of Nkrumah’s All African People
Conference
as well as many other conferences on Pan-Africanism that
followed.
"Have we perhaps not missed the boat for not going in the
direction of USA
[on a united state of Africa]," was another
question.
The queues of questions kept getting longer and longer,
prompting the
professors to cut the session short – Nujoma only had 30
minutes set aside
for the lecture and interaction.
Nujoma repeated
one of Nkrumah’s often-repeated sentences: "The independence
of Ghana is
meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of the
African
continent."
Elaborating on what brought up the liberation movement of
that time, Nujoma
pointed out that as much as colonialism was the factor,
part of the problem
was also the economic strangle on the
continent.
Hence, political leaders on all frontiers stood side by side
to wage the war
against colonialism. His mentioning of Zimbabwe’s Robert
Mugabe among other
great leaders at various frontiers elicited huge laughter
from the crowd.
It was in Ghana where Nujoma was propelled to the
international arena.
He was there to attend the All African People’s
Conference organised by
President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana against the French
Atom Bomb test in the
Sahara Desert.
It was Kwame Nkrumah who helped
him travel to the United Nation’s Fourth
Committee of the General Assembly
and made his first petition demanding the
end of the South African colonial
administration in the then South West
Africa.
Nkrumah was a
Pan-Africanist, advocating the socio-political philosophy that
sought to
unify a global African community and pursue political and economic
emancipation of the African people.
Contrary to Nkrumah’s hard labour
on this front, nothing much has happened
when it comes to economic
emancipation of the continent.
"How to build the future is a challenge to
all of us, especially the youth,
"said Nujoma.
He pointed at
prospects of Inga waterfalls in Democratic Republic of Congo
to supply
energy to entire continent and export the surplus to the rest of
the world,
Ghana’s amazing fertile land that can produce sufficient food and
export
surpluses outside the continent.
"It is important to instil our core
values and make them part of our
everyday lives," he said of the youths
gathered in the hall.
He also stressed the importance of education saying
it is the key for future
growth.
"We need to produce our own doctors,
scientists, geologists, architects,"
Nujoma listed important professions
that he deems key to the growth of the
African continent.
The next
day Nujoma visited the Akosombo hydropower dam, 120 kilometres out
of Accra.
The dam was built in early 1960 and continues to function. It has
the
capacity of producing more than 1 000 Megawatts of electricity.
http://www.kubatanablogs.net/kubatana/?p=4298
Quite a few of us living in
Harare “leak” (that is, give a massive sigh)
when we’re asked to pick
someone up from Harare International Airport off
the South African Airways
flight at 9pm. It’s not that we’re unhelpful or
unfriendly, its more to do
with running the gauntlet of weirdly positioned
(that is, in the dark, with
no signage) police roadblocks, non-working
traffic lights, potholes and the
Zimbabwe Mafia.
The Zimbabwe Mafia is a group of 4 men who rob and
assault people returning
from the airport. Most recently my family went to
welcome home a sibling
returning for Christmas. They parked their car in the
airport car park but
little did they know that whilst they were inside, a
member of the Zimbabwe
Mafia slashed one of their tyres. When they left the
airport they got as far
as the Independence arch when the tyre became flat.
Pretty soon they were
rounded on by 4 men who were violent (one of them hit
the 74 year old driver
across the face with a wheel spanner) and they were
intent on stealing what
they could. When they left, they told their victims
that they had met the
Zimbabwe Mafia.
Welcome to
Zimbabwe.
There is no doubt that if the Zimbabwean authorities had an
ounce of
proactivity and concern they would do something to improve the
security
situation for people travelling to and from the airport.
1. The airport car park is dimly lit at the best of times. When the
airport
wants to save on power, there are actually no lights on at all in
the car
park. Of course this gives the bad guys all the room in the world to
manoeuvre.
2. The airport car park does not have a single guard
looking after the
cars parked there. Why?
3. Whilst construction of a
fancy new road to the airport has been
underway for over 2 years, the
current one does not have streetlights in
certain sections, like before the
Independence arch. Why has this not been
addressed? Yes, it’s fine for some
who speed around our city in motorcades
but what about the rest of us.
4. Members of the Hatfield Police Station are incredibly energetic when
it
comes to positioning themselves on the airport road at strategic times to
catch motorists speeding to catch a flight. However, it is clearly known to
them by now that local Zimbabweans and visitors are being assaulted at
night. Why are they not increasing their presence on the airport road at
these vulnerable times? Too much like hard work? I think so.
In real
terms, the authorities could make this strategic area of our city
much safer
fairly easily. But they won’t. And in the meantime government
officials cite
Zimbabwe as a safe destination.
Come to Zimbabwe and get robbed before
you reach your hotel.
You’ll love it here.
This entry was posted
on December 7th, 2010 at 1:00 pm by Bev Clark
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Joshua Hammer Tuesday 07 December
2010
FOR Western journalists visiting Zimbabwe in the middle of the
last decade,
a background chat with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Dell was an
opportunity
not to be missed.
A veteran Foreign Service Officer with
a refreshingly informal, outspoken
style, Dell could be counted on to
deliver candid assessments of Robert
Mugabe’s latest skullduggery, and of
the hapless efforts by Zimbabwe’s
opposition to get rid of him.
When
I met him at his sprawling residence in the verdant northern suburbs of
Harare in May 2006, while reporting a New Yorker story about Mugabe, Dell
laughed as he told me of his arrest by the dictator’s thugs for trespassing
near the presidential palace in downtown Harare. He was clearly enjoying
rattling the regime. “I cannot even spell the word Dell with a ‘D’ but an
‘H’
and that is where Dell should go,” Mugabe declared that year, to Dell’s
delight.
Dell was one of those rare U.S. diplomats who was nearly as
frank with
reporters and in his public pronouncements as he was with his
State
Department colleagues.
So many of the observations in his
dispatches to Washington, released by
WikiLeaks last week, have a certain
degree of familiarity to them: his
grudging respect for Mugabe’s survival
skills (“give the devil his due,” he
wrote, “he is more clever and more
ruthless than any other politician in
Zimbabwe”), his disgust at the
dictator’s ignorance of basic economics and
appetite for violence, his low
opinions of many members of the Movement for
Democratic Change—the
democratic opposition—and his conviction that, with
U.S. help and
encouragement of the forces arrayed against Mugabe, “the end
is not far
off”.
Still, it’s fascinating to read the former Ambassador’s unvarnished
views
about Zimbabwe’s politics and personalities, and his predictions about
the
country’s future. Much of what Dell writes here is on the money: he
appreciates MDC leader Morgan Tsvangarai’s “courage” and “star quality”
while noting his “questionable judgment in selecting those around
him.”
This nuanced assessment took place just after a bitter and
debilitating
split along ethnic lines of the MDC, prompted in part by the
beatings of
some of Tsvangarai’s critics by his fiercely loyal youth wing.
(Tensions
within the opposition party continue to undermine its
effectiveness.)
He astutely dismisses the slick and superficial Arthur
Mutambara, a Rhodes
Scholar, leader of the breakaway faction and
Tsvangarai’s main opposition
challenger, as a “lightweight who spends too
much time reading U.S. campaign
messaging manuals.”
Dell saw that
pressure was building on Mugabe both from the streets and from
his own
ruling ZANU-PF circle, who were beginning to suffer from the effects
of
Mugabe’s ruinous economic policies. He saw a range of possible
denouements
looming—from a free and fair election, to a
South-African-brokered power
sharing deal that would “perpetuate the status
quo,” to “a popular uprising”
that, he cautioned, would likely result in “a
bloodbath.”
There are
also some observations that seem off the mark. Dell was far too
trusting of
South African leader Thabo Mbeki. “Mbeki appears committed to a
successful
mediation and is reportedly increasingly irritated by Mugabe’s
efforts to
manipulate him or blow him off altogether,” Dell wrote back in
2007. In
fact, the South African president turned into Mugabe’s chief
enabler,
standing by him, propping him up with money and electricity, and
turning his
back on the opposition as the country spiraled into crisis.
Dell seems to
have underestimated the obscene lengths to which Mugabe, or
those around
him, would go to perpetuate his hold on power. The Fear, a
forthcoming book
by Peter Godwin—the Rhodesia-born correspondent who has
become the most
intrepid chronicler of Zimbabwe’s last decade—describes in
chilling detail
the beatings, tortures, and murders that ZANU-PF mobs
inflicted on MDC
supporters in the spring and summer of 2008, after
Tsvangarai defeated
Mugabe in the presidential election and was subsequently
forced to compete
in a run off.
Hundreds of people were murdered, thousands were assaulted,
and tens of
thousands were driven from their homes in a campaign of terror
so widespread
and relentless that Tsvangarai was forced to surrender his
challenge (while
Mbeki blandly looked on, saying nothing). Dell may also
have overlooked the
determination of Mugabe’s generals—terrified at the
prospect of being hauled
to the Hague or the International Criminal Court of
Justice—to subvert the
transition to an MDC government.
Four years
later, Zimbabwe has, in fact, tasted all three of the scenarios
that Dell
envisioned in his memos. It had a surprisingly transparent
election in March
2008—albeit one that was subsequently stolen by Mugabe. It
had a
bloodbath.
And now it has the “power sharing deal” brokered by South
Africa, with
Mugabe in the driver’s seat. The eighty-five-year-old dictator
is arguably
as strong as ever—ZANU-PF controls the security forces, the
judiciary, and
most levers of power—and the diplomatic pressure on him has
eased. Dell’s
take on the Mugabe dictatorship proved to be uncannily
accurate. The only
thing he really failed to see was the utter inability of
his own government
to make a difference.
Joshua Hammer is a
Berlin-based foreign correspondent and the author of,
most recently, A
Season in Bethlehem: Unholy War in a Sacred Place (Free
Press). – The new
Republic