http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 12 February 2012 13:58
BY
NQABA MATSHAZI
The controversial re-appointment of Police
Commissioner General Augustine
Chihuri for another term of office is set to
take centre stage at the
principals’ meeting tomorrow as Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai insists
President Robert Mugabe cannot act
unilaterally.
Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka yesterday said the
principals
are meeting tomorrow to clear the confusion surrounding Chihuri’s
term of
office.
“The position regarding Chihuri’s term of office will be
much clearer after
Monday’s meeting,” said Tamborinyoka.
This
comes after Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba claimed that Chihuri had
been
re-appointed as Police Commissioner General till 2014, in what is
increasingly becoming a conflict that is likely to rock the inclusive
government.
“Charamba is not a principal,” Tsvangirai said on
Saturday. “He is not a
spokesman for the
government.”
government.
Asked if he felt betrayed that Mugabe had
gone behind his back and
re-appointed Chihuri, Tsvangirai said he did not
feel cheated because as far
as he was concerned the police boss was only
there on an acting basis.
“Nothing has changed,” he continued. “We
stand by the meeting we had (on
Wednesday), where the Chief Secretary to the
President and Cabinet was
present.”
Tsvangirai affirmed that he
stood by what he said after a meeting with
Mugabe and deputy premier, Arthur
Mutambara. He said there were no new
developments and what Charamba had told
the press was far from the truth.
Chihuri’s term as
police commissioner expired at the end of last month and
controversy reigns
over his reappointment.
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party maintains that Chihuri’s
term may not be extended
without Mugabe consulting them. But Charamba argues
that it is Mugabe’s
prerogative to re-appoint him.
He could not
be reached for comment yesterday.
“I am committed to see sustainable peace.
Mugabe has made a commitment to
seek peace,” Tsvangirai said. “What we lack
is sincerity.”
‘Mugabe, Tsvangirai chosen by
God’
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai told a prayer meeting in Harare
yesterday that he and
Mugabe had been chosen by God and the people of
Zimbabwe should pray for
them to lead the country.
“I have been
chosen by God, so has Mugabe,” Tsvangirai told thousands of
people at the
Chitungwiza Aquatic Complex yesterday. “Whether you like us or
not, you have
to pray for us, for vision, foresight and wisdom to lead the
country.”
Tsvangirai said his life bore testimony to the wonders
that God can work in
one’s life. “If God wasn’t with me I would be dead,” he
said. “I have walked
in the shadow of death, but here I am, thanks to God’s
grace.”
The premier said he felt blessed that he had been chosen
among multitudes of
Zimbabweans to take the position of prime minister.
Tsvangirai, who
described violence as “stupidity”, said he and Mugabe had
entered a covenant
that they would preach peace so the country could
experience economic and
social development.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012
20:23
PATRICE MAKOVA
President Robert Mugabe will not sign the
draft constitution into the new
supreme law of the country as long as it
disqualifies him from contesting
the next elections, a senior Zanu PF
official has declared.
Mugabe, who turns 88 next week, has already been
endorsed as the Zanu PF
Presidential candidate for elections set to take
place later this year or in
2013.
The Constitution Select
Committee (Copac) last week published the first
draft of the long awaited
new supreme law of the country which has many
sections which Zanu PF is
strongly opposed to.
Section 6.4.2 of the draft disqualifies from
standing in Presidential
elections, any person who has already held the
office for 10 years, meaning
that President Robert Mugabe cannot contest the
next polls.
The powers of the President with regards to the
appointment of security
chiefs are diluted and the draft also allows dual
citizenship under Section
3.3, another issue strongly opposed by Zanu
PF.
Copac Co-chairperson Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said there was no
way Mugabe
would sign into law, a document which disqualifies him from
contesting.
“President Mugabe has already said he is contesting the next
elections. As
long as I am in Copac, there is no way we are going to allow a
draft which
is detrimental to my party (Zanu PF) and its leader,” he
said.
Mangwana said Copac was not responsible for publishing the
draft and accused
the media of causing unnecessary anxiety and misleading
the public.
He said Copac was still to discuss the clause to do with
executive powers.
“We are going to discuss issues to do with
executive powers next week. What
is contained in that draft document are
proposals by drafters but Copac is
yet to take a position,” said
Mangwana.
He said the confusion over the draft would further delay
the constitution
making process which was already running two years behind
schedule.
But MDC-T spokesperson Douglous Mwonzora said the draft was a true
reflection of what transpired during the outreach programmes.
“The draft
is respecting what the people said during the outreach programmes
and
includes issues which certain individuals and groups may not be happy
with,”
said Mwonzora, who is also Copac Co-chairperson.
Political analyst
Charles Mangongera said the publishing of the draft was
the work of Zanu PF
hardliners who were trying to pre-empt the drafting by
whipping political
attitudes.
“It is part of their agenda for the process to collapse as
a precursor for
Mugabe to call snap polls,” he said. “They (Zanu PF) have a
fear of the
unknown and rather prefer to use the Lancaster House
Constitution which
gives Mugabe excessive executive
powers.”
Mangongera said Zanu PF viewed the current constitution
making process as
unnecessary and not part of the party’s election
agenda.
He said the party was aware that the new constitution might
end up being a
negotiated document, making it difficult to hold elections
soon.
“If we follow the current process, the possibility of having
elections this
year or the first quarter of next year is minimal and Zanu PF
sees this as
an unnecessary delay,” said Mangongera.
Another
political analyst, Ernest Mudzengi said accepting the draft would be
an
insult to Zanu PF considering that the party has already endorsed Mugabe
as
its candidate in the next elections.
“They (Zanu PF) will never agree
to a document which disqualifies their
candidate,” he
said.
Mudzengi criticized the draft saying it was not an improvement
from the
current constitution.
“Presidential powers are still
intact in the proposed constitution,” he
said. “One of the problems of the
current constitution is that we have an
executive President who renders
Parliament useless. The draft maintains this
status quo and this in
untenable in a democratic society.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012 20:12
BY LESLEY
WURAYAYI
POLITICAL violence is still rife in Shamva in Mashonaland Central
province
despite the establishment of an organ to reconcile and integrate
affected
communities four years ago.
Villagers suspected to be
sympathetic to MDC-T in Shamva, one of the areas
that experienced
unprecedented political violence during the 2008 elections,
continue to be
victimised because of their political affiliation.
Scores of
people were killed in the area during the 2008 violent elections
and those
that survived are still suffering from the trauma of being
tortured, raped
or seeing relatives getting killed.
Villagers who spoke to The
Standard recently, professed ignorance on the
existence of the organ on
national healing, reconciliation and integration
(ONHRI), a department in
the inclusive government that is supposed to
reconcile victims of political
disturbances since the pre-colonial era.
“We don’t even know what the
process entails, so we need to be educated as
to what it entails,” said one
villager, who requested anonymity for fear of
victimisation.
The
villagers said they are saddened by the possibility of elections taking
place this year or next year because they fear a repeat of the 2008
violence.
The MDC-T claimed that at least 200 of its supporters were
butchered by
suspected security agents and Zanu PF supporters during that
time.
Another villager, Memory William, said she has been constantly
harassed by
Zanu PF supporters since her son, Dickson Tembo, was ejected
from the Border
Gezi Youth Training programme in July last year on
allegations that he was
an MDC-T activist.
“Life has become
unbearable for us in the village. Now I stay with relatives
in town where we
can have peace of mind,” said William.
Political instability has stunted
development in the area, as donors fear
for the lives of their
employees.
Recently, some Zanu PF youths raided a non-governmental
organisation (NGO)
that was distributing fertilizers and maize seed in
Madziwa village,
resulting in the intended beneficiaries failing to get the
agricultural
inputs.
Isaac Chidavaenzi, executive director of
Chengaose Foundation Trust, who was
part of the delegation that had gone to
Madziva to distribute the farming
inputs, deplored the youths’
behaviour.
“Ten families had their supplies raided by the rampant
youths and until now
they haven’t received their fertilizers, as police
appear reluctant to
recover the inputs,” said
Chidavaenzi.
Political commentators said the situation in Shamva is
reflective of the
state of affairs in most parts of the country, where cases
of political
violence are on the increase following talks of holding polls
this year or
next year.
ONHRI co-chairperson Moses Mzila-Ndlovu
last week conceded that the organ
had not done much in educating people on
the need for political tolerance
and reconciliation.
“We are
trying to set up a national peace reconciliation council and once it’s
set
up, we will have a mechanism of disseminating and reaching out to
affected
people.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012
20:07
BY OUR STAFF
MDC-T has called on Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to
come out in their
thousands and show support for world-wide protests against
President Robert
Mugabe’s rule.
The protests, christened the 21st
Movement’s Free Zimbabwe Global Protests,
will be held on the same day the
ageing leader, who turns 88 next week, will
be celebrating his
birthday.
The chairman of the United States External Assembly of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC-T) Den Moyo said the protests were a
sequel to those
held in January where petitions were handed over to SA
diplomats in the US,
UK, Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland and the
South African government
in Pretoria.
“The exiled Zimbabweans
plan mock birthday parties in front of all South
African Embassies,
Consulate Missions, Union Buildings and Parliament in
peaceful protests
against misrule, endemic corruption and are demanding
reforms that will
allow an environment for free and fair elections to be
held,” said Moyo in a
statement.
Mugabe is the oldest surviving African leader who is
renowned for lavish and
extravagant birthday parties while the country’s
economy is in ruins with
unemployment rate above 90% and the majority living
below the poverty datum
line.
It is estimated that there are over
five million Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora, who fled Zimbabwe over the past 12
years as a result of violent
rule and increased repression.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012 20:06
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
ACCUSATIONS are flying between the Harare City Council and the Zimbabwe
National Road Administration (Zinara) ahead of this year’s disbursement of
the road funds with each party accusing the other of reneging on its
obligations.
Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda told a recent council meeting
that Zinara
last year gave council about US$4 million, which was almost half
of the
amount that was due to the municipality.
A number of
councillors called for legal action against Zinara but Masunda
cautioned
them saying Transport, Communication and Infrastructure
Development minister
Nicholas Goche had pledged to engage Zinara over the
matter.
“They haven’t paid yet,” Masunda said Friday. “If the
situation persists, we
will have no choice but to continue rattling the cage
until we get what
belongs to us. We are being seriously disadvantaged by the
Zinara system. We
do not benefit anything at all from that
arrangement.”
Councils used to issue vehicles licences on behalf of
Zinara and retained
the bulk of the funds for the maintenance of
roads.
But the licences are now being handled by Zimpost, which
collects the funds
on behalf of Zinara, before disbursing the money to
municipalities and other
road authorities.
Zinara spokesperson
Augustine Moyo said the administration gave all road
authorities, including
Harare, all that was due to them. He said the mandate
to determine what each
authority gets lies with Zinara.
“The problem lies with them,” Moyo
said.
“Last year, we gave Harare US$3 650 000 for routine road
maintenance which
basically entails patching the roads and grass cutting but
they have not yet
acquitted for that money.
“We pledged to give
them US$5m this year but we may decide not to give them
that money should
they continue failing to acquit for what we gave them in
2011.”
Moyo said inflows into the road fund remained low, with
only US$80m
collected in 2011 against a requirement of US$2 billion per
year. Masunda
said Harare required US$67m to revamp its road network.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012 19:36
MASVINGO —
When he became the first person in Zimbabwe to invade a
white-owned
commercial farm that precipitated the violent land grab in 2000,
Francis
Zimuto aka Black Jesus faced the easiest of all tasks.
He even staged a
one-man march from Masvingo to Harare carrying a cross to
petition the
British Queen, through its embassy in the capital city,
protesting against
UK’s reluctance to fund the land reform programme.
But more than a
decade later, Zimuto who is a trainer of the infamous Zanu
PF’s youth
militia, known as Green Bombers, is tasting his own medicine
after at least
150 villagers from Chilonga communal lands descended on his
latest
acquisition — Mteri Conservancy and Lodges in the Lowveld — demanding
a
share.
He invaded the conservancy from the sugar conglomerate, Tongaat
Hullet, the
parent company of Triangle and Hippo Valley on January 1 giving
himself a
New Year present.
But barely a month later, Zimuto said
he was being frustrated by the
villagers who invaded “his
property”.
“Now I am facing a problem of squatters who have invaded
the place and set
up camp, poaching the animals in the area and disturbing
arrivals of
hunters.”
He said he was going to seek an eviction order from
the courts.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012 19:34
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Peaceful devolution of power can only be achieved
through
negotiations among political parties and other stakeholders to
ensure that
the needs of all interest groups are accommodated, analysts have
said.
Devolution is one of the topical issues that dominated the debate
during
outreach meetings by the Constitution Select Committee
(Copac).
Calls for devolutions were more pronounced in provinces of
Matabeleland,
Midlands and Manicaland, where communities feel resources from
their areas
were being extracted for the benefit of other provinces,
especially Harare.
The provinces are awash with minerals such as
diamonds, emeralds and gold,
but they lag behind in terms of development
prompting locals to agitate for
the control of their own
resources.
Analysts said devolution removes all bottlenecks and red
tape created by the
current centralist governance system and encourages
cultural and social
diversity.
South African-based analyst George
Mkhwananzi said devolution was not
power-neutral and could not be pursued
without regard to political
sensibilities within a country.
“As
such, while the will of the majority as reflected in their input at the
outreach programmes should be accommodated in the new constitution, there
will always be the interests of some strategic groupings who need to be
assured that the new changes are not coming to strangle them out of
existence,” said Mkhwananzi.
He added, “It is here that
negotiations must come in; to eliminate
suspicions and to suggest safeguards
against abuse.”
Mkhwananzi said from preliminary reports of the views
gathered countrywide,
devolution was vastly popular because only two
provinces did not out rightly
demand it.
Admore Tshuma, an expert
on social justice, concurred that negotiations on
devolution were necessary
because Zanu PF was against the concept.
“As such, there should be
negotiations fronted by selected influential but
politically-untainted
people of Matabeleland who might be technocrats with
various political and
socio-economic skills,” Tshuma said.
If local negotiations fail, said
Tshuma, marginalised groups must seek
outside help from such bodies as the
United Nations.
Sydney Chisi, the director of the Youth Initiative
for Democracy In Zimbabwe
(YIDEZ) said stakeholders’ dialogues were
important to design frameworks
that would accommodate what each region can
offer to the central government
without marginalising those who might have
nothing or those that have
benefited more since
independence.
Mthwakazi Liberation Front leader Paul Siwela said,
“devolution has been
overtaken by the need for sovereignty and
self-determination.
“The Mthwakazi people are no longer interested to be part
of colonial
Zimbabwe which has given them pain, shame and loss of dignity
over the
years”.
Kenya destabilised after
devolution
While marginalised regions in Zimbabwe clamour for
devolution, there is
turmoil in Kenya, one of the African countries that
recently devolved after
adopting a new constitution, as tribes fight for
resources.
But analysts say the prospect of real political and
budgetary power,
concentrated since independence in distant Nairobi, water,
pasture and
cattle-raid vendettas, now drive the violence in other parts of
the country
and has left dozens dead and tens of thousands displaced
recently.
The Kenyan devolution system still maintains a unitary
political concept as
a result of distribution of functions between the two
levels of government
since some statutes of that country’s constitution
gives the president the
power to suspend a county government.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012 19:28
ORDINARY and
Advanced Level examination markers have accused Zimsec of
short-changing
them by paying them three quarters of their fees instead of
the full amount
as earlier agreed.
Examination markers who spoke to The Standard
yesterday, said Zimsec was
supposed to pay them all their fees before
results were released, but this
has not been done. “Zimsec deposited only
three quarters of our fees, but
the body has not communicated to us as to
why there is such a huge
shortfall,” said one examination marker who
requested anonymity.
The makers were supposed to be paid
between 90 cents and US$1,20 per each
paper they marked. Markers who were
expecting between and US$600 and US$700
got only US$300.
Raymond
Majongwe, the secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of
Zimbabwe, said Zimsec was not respecting teachers as professionals by
failing to pay them in full for marking examinations. “The real challenge is
that markers were duped into believing that money would be deposited into
their accounts, but up until now they haven’t got their full pay,” Majongwe
said.
Sifiso Ndlovu, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association public
relations officer
said that Zimsec has paid only 75% of the amounts involved
and blamed it for
not honouring markers contracts. “Markers signed contracts
and are they
supposed to have been paid in full seven days after they
finished marking.
We will make this a matter of urgency, as we take it up
with the Ministry of
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture,” said
Ndlovu.
“A long-term recommendation of adequate funding will be
suggested so as to
avoid such cases and encourage participation of educators
in terms of
marking,” Ndlovu added.
A disgruntled marker who
spoke to The Standard said the way Zimsec treated
markers would compromise
examination marking in the future.
“They want us to mark examinations but
they do not want to pay us. Is this
the way to go?”
Meanwhile,
the Zimbabwe National Education Union of Zimbabwe (NEUZ) is also
unhappy
with Zimsec.
The body has appealed to Education minister David
Coltart to intervene in a
labour dispute between the exams body and and its
workers.
An independent arbitrator Arthur Manase recently ordered Zimsec to
pay its
290 employees US$400 000 in outstanding housing allowances dating
back to 12
months ago. — by our staff
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012
18:45
BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
THE World Bank says its investment in
regional integration is set to more
than double to US$5,7 billion by July
from US$2,1 billion in 2008 as part of
its new Africa
strategy.
The new Africa strategy devised last year focuses on
creating jobs and
making African economies more
competitive.
The bank notes that return on investment in
Africa was among the highest in
the world, coupled with a surge in private
capital into countries.
This development comes at a time when most
sub-Saharan economies are poised
to witness an average growth rate of
5,4%.
Despite Zimbabwe’s development prospects being blighted by a
plethora of
governance and policy issues precipitated by political
squabbles, the bank
says the country still fits into the new
strategy.
World Bank Zimbabwe, country manager, Mungai Lenneiye told
Standardbusiness
the strategy has two pillars, namely competitiveness and
employment, as well
as vulnerability and resilience, and a foundation based
on governance and
public sector capacity.
“Our strategy’s
foundation of improving governance and strengthening public
sector capacity
is geared towards the needs of countries such as Zimbabwe.
And to strengthen
our presence, the bank’s country director for Zimbabwe,
Zambia and Malawi is
now based nearby in Lusaka,” he said.
The investment figures were
revealed in the multilateral institution’s
latest report on the losses that
African countries, including Zimbabwe are
incurring in potential trade
earnings owing to high trade barriers.
The report, titled
De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade
Integration in Goods and
Services, shows that it is easier for Africa to
trade with the rest of the
world than with itself.
Regional fragmentation could become even more
costly for the continent with
new World Bank forecasts suggesting that the
economic slowdown in the
euro-zone could cut Africa’s growth by up to 1,3%
points this year.
Despite resolutions by regional economic groupings
such as the Common Market
for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) and Southern
African Development
Community (Sadc) to facilitate ease of trade and free
movement of business
persons across borders, these have remained a fleeting
illusion as massive
trade barriers exist.
The report says until
the beginning of the financial crisis, most
sub-Saharan African countries
grew rapidly and often at much higher rates
than the world
average.
“Economic growth in these countries was robust and driven by
the boom in
commodity prices, which led to very high growth in export
values, especially
for minerals, to new fast-growing markets such as India
and China,” the bank
says.
The World Bank notes that while
exports have grown strongly over the last
decade, and the region’s trade has
recovered well from the global crisis,
the impact on unemployment and
poverty has been disappointing in many
countries.
“This shows
that export growth has typically been fuelled by a small number
of mineral
and primary products with limited impacts on the wider economy
and that
formal sectors remain small in many countries,” reads part of the
report.
The report says changes are needed in three key areas:
improving
cross-border trade, removing a range of non-tariff barriers to
trade, such
as restrictive rules of origin, import and export bans, as well
as onerous
and costly import and export licensing procedures.
The
third area relates to reforming regulations and immigration rules that
limit
the substantial potential for cross-border trade and investment in
services.
The bank subsequently recommends raising awareness about the
importance of
distribution services as the first step in designing a
comprehensive reform
strategy that is linked with national
development.
Report commends Chirundu one-stop border
post
The report also hails the Chirundu one-stop border post
between Zambia and
Zimbabwe, which was officially inaugurated in December
2009, as the first
African one-stop border post.
“The
establishment of the one-stop border post has provided some significant
improvements, for example, passengers and commercial traffic stop only once
to complete border formalities for both countries, and waiting times for
commercial traffic have been reduced from about four to five days to a
maximum of two days and often to a few hours,” the bank says in the report.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February 2012 19:03
BY
TERRY MUTSVANGA
The recent vetoing by two Security Council member
countries namely China and
Russia resulting in the blockade of a resolution
that called for the
stepping down of incumbent Syrian President Basher
al-Assad leaves a lot to
be desired.
The people of Syria are being
mercilessly murdered by the Basher Regime
after peacefully protesting for
him to step down. According to human rights
groups, thousands of Syrians
have died from the brutal killings and
broadcast messages were shown
world-wide as the Syrians called for outside
intervention prompting the Arab
League and some Security Council member
states to call for the UN
resolution.
Responding to the Russian Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov,
who asked “What’s
the endgame?” after the veto, US secretary of state
Hillary Clinton replied:
“The endgame in the absence of us acting together
as the international
community, I fear, is civil war.”
Al-Assad
seems to have been thrown a lifeline putting him off the hook and,
to the
Syrian people, it means more killings courtesy of Russia and China,
the all
weather friends of Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF
put it.
According to the two UN Security Council member countries, the
passing of
the resolution was tantamount to military intervention pushing
for regime
change in Syria thus violating Damascus’s sovereignty. But what
can the
world expect from the two authoritarian states?
China, a Communist
state with a capitalist economy, has been an anti-human
rights state since
its founding by the then Premier Mao Zedong on the
October 1 1949. Beijing
has been an authoritarian state suppressing any
dissent and a clear example
is the 1989 student uprisings at Tiananmen
Square that resulted in the
disappearance of scores of students whose
whereabouts remain unknown to this
day.
While the unwavering support that China rendered to the
liberation of
Zimbabwe remains a fact, China has maintained a see-no-evil
and hear-no-
evil approach towards human rights violations in Zimbabwe. The
policy of
“non-interference” that China advocates has benefited Zanu PF and
President
Mugabe who has been on a brutal campaign since 2002 and 2008 when
he lost
elections.
Now that President Mugabe and Zanu PF have
signalled that they will proceed
with the holding of elections regardless of
the endorsement of Sadc, the
majority of Zimbabweans now fear a repeat of
the 2008 strategy in which
the state machinery comprising the army, police
and the intelligence
services were unleashed on the
people.
Zanu PF is now in its comfort-zone, knowing that no matter
how much it
brutalises the people, the international community led by the
United States
and Europe will just bark like a toothless bulldog while its
all-weather
friends, Beijing and Moscow, act as a bullet-proof shield for
Harare.
The policy of non-interference by Beijing has seen China
being the winner at
the end of the day since it is benefiting from the
country’s rich mineral
deposits such as diamonds while ignoring the
country’s poor human rights
record.
Back to the Syrian crisis,
the Beijing and Moscow veto means a lot of blood
will be spilled because
certain UN member states which have strong political
ties with Damascus have
denied them a reprieve that could have resulted in
the total isolation of
al-Assad and his band of killers. Just like
Zimbabweans, the Syrian people
demand democracy and human rights which they
are entitled to, but their
quest is being rejected by power-hungry despots.
Al-Assad is just one
of those despots, born with a silver spoon in the mouth
he inherited power
from his father and is totally opposed to any form of
democratic
change.
As former Russian leader Tsar Alexander II said during his
famous Edict of
Emancipation of 1861: “It is better to abolish serfdom from
above than to
wait for it to abolish itself from below”, speaking at the
Kremlin square.
The Tsar had realised that the Serfs had to be given
their freedom rather
than wait for them to revolt. That is why in Russia he
is regarded as the
“Tsar Liberator” but ironically his predecessors who came
to power such as
Vladimir Putin and President Ledvedev continue to silence
voices of dissent
and Zanu PF idolises them for this.
It is now
up to the people of Zimbabwe to take their cue from the actions of
China and
Russia and realise that, far from being the much touted all
weather friends,
the two countries are bent on promoting dictatorial
tendencies in the
country and in Africa.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Saturday, 11 February
2012 19:01
Andrew Masuku
Many people subscribe to the notion that
Zimbabwe’s problems are premised
on dictatorship, manifesting in lack of
media and security-sector reforms
amid a plethora of other political matrix
backing-up the corrupt activities
of those ensconced in comfortable public
offices. While there may be some
semblance of truth in that, I personally
would not worry myself too much
with people who are unethical, but people
who consider themselves to be
ethical, yet think they are “too smart” to
participate in politics.
In Zimbabwe we have civil and political
activists who find themselves
engrossed in fire-fighting the symptoms and
not the causes of problems.
Some of my fellow Christians may not like
this, but I find the generality of
Christians being a big let-down on civil
administration matters. We are a
Christian country, judged by many
denominations stocking religious assembly
points every Sunday, but do all
those people properly interpret what Jesus
Christ said in Matthew 5: 14?
“You are the light of the world. A city on a
hill cannot be hidden. Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a
bowel. Instead they put it on its
stand, and it gives light to everyone in
the house. In the same way, let
your light shine before men that they may
see your good deeds and praise
your Father in heaven.” (NIV).
What I find most shocking is that most
Christians are discouraged by their
church leaders never to participate in
political activities, even if that
would simply be to cast a ballot. To
validate what I am saying here, a
simple survey would need to be carried out
among Christians across the
country, as basically, this may be the truth
that confirms the low voter
turnout, since the advent of our
independence.
In the majority of cases, political players are
vilified as the “ungodly” of
this world by proud Christians who think that
their home is in heaven. Such
people do not even realise that they
themselves need basic survival
requirements and should be concerned if
ordinary people suffer the
consequences of their failure to take
responsibility in civil administrative
activities.
If those
people are true Christians, they should influence better outcomes
in
political activities, as Christ said, they are the light of the world.
Since
1980 we have never had decisive electoral results, due to low voter
turnout
caused by people who vilify unethical political practices and yet
the same
critics would not subscribe to the cause of alternative
behaviour.
Having unethical people in public offices should not
itself be anything
startling, but how a person with corruptible tendencies
got into the public
office in the first place. One single most advantageous
factor in democracy
is that it provides for public responsibility, so that
everyone should be
accountable for what goes on in public
administration.
A voter would carefully exercise his/her voting in
order to ensure that only
the right candidates are given the chance to
occupy public office. In the
end only the most suitable people should be
voted for. For instance, as long
as legislators are identified from within
their constituencies, the chances
of electing the wrong candidates would be
minimised, as people know their
people, especially if those church
assemblies could be used to identify
candidates.
However, most
Christian church leaders do not entertain politics. They say
politics is for
people with evil intentions, yet they expect the same people
to make
decisions that affect their livelihood.
The so-called crisis in
Zimbabwe could easily be managed, if Christians
understood their mandate in
being the light of the world, and shunned
self-centredness that prevents
them from participating in politics.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
BY NEVANJI MADANHIRE
It would have been mad for anyone to
believe that President Robert Mugabe
had at last ditched the service chiefs
by not renewing their contracts. If
he had done so, that would have been the
security sector reforms everyone is
whining about! It would have been
nothing short of miraculous.
The offices of the service chiefs and the
individuals that occupy them are
the raisons d’être for Mugabe’s own
survival. Without the service chiefs his
political career would have expired
quite a while ago; or put another way,
it might never have taken off the
ground if they had refused to accept him
as their leader in the
mid-1970s.
The parasitic relationship between Mugabe and the
individuals that occupy
those offices, therefore, goes back to the days of
the liberation struggle.
Indeed, Constantine Chiwenga, Perence Shiri,
Paradzai Zimondi and Valerio
Sibanda were at the core of the liberation war.
Augustine Chihuri was there
too although he once fell out with them; he was
quickly rehabilitated and is
not in a hurry to forget that
favour.
It is wishful thinking therefore that Mugabe can sit at a
roundtable with
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to decide the fate of
the wheels on
which his engine runs; it is to underestimate the vigour of
his
ultra-nationalism.
President Mugabe thrives on his extremist
nationalist ideals. Only recently
at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa
he exhorted the same by reminding
the other delegates: “We fought
imperialism and colonialism and forced them
out of Africa…our founding
fathers did not have the means but they stood up
and said no, but here we
are absolutely silent.”
He was urging the AU to withdraw their
support for the new dispensation in
Libya that toppled the regime of his
ally Muammar Gaddafi. The involvement
of Nato forces led by France and
Britain in the Libyan revolution, for
Mugabe, was the ultimate signal that
the West was preparing to re-colonise
the African continent. The West had
become a real enemy threatening not only
Zimbabwean sovereignty but the
liberation of the whole of Africa.
His ideals, he wants the world to
know, are sanctified by the liberation
struggle which he led together with
the current service chiefs; the same who
other members of Zimbabwe’s
coalition government want removed. He has never
hidden his contempt for his
counterparts in the government mainly for the
reason that they did not
participate in the liberation struggle and also
because he considers them
stooges of the West.
Ultra-nationalist governments are necessarily
authoritarian and
authoritarianism can only be sustained through militarism.
The service
chiefs are the face of this militarism. Other important cogs in
the
continued existence of his ideals are demagoguery, emotionalism,
populism
and propaganda and for these he is helped by the monopoly over the
airwaves.
The latest debacle, in which two principals to the global
political
agreement, had the bravado to call a press conference to announce
a victory
over Mugabe regarding the position of the service chiefs,
particularly the
openly partisan Police Commissioner-General has shown
beyond any shadow of
doubt that contrary to popular belief Mugabe is in
charge. There are tenuous
efforts in certain circles to refer to Zanu PF as
the “former ruling party”.
The fact of the matter is Zanu PF is ruling the
roost and Mugabe is the
imperious ruler.
“Why, man, he doth
bestride the narrow world/ Like a Colossus, and we petty
men/ Walk under his
huge legs and peep about/To find ourselves dishonourable
graves.” (Cassius
referring to Julius Caesar circa 44BC).
Morgan Tsvangirai has been
dishonoured. Arthur Mutambara has been
dishonoured, (if he had any honour at
all). They have been shown to be
“petty men”. They can no longer stand in
front of their supporters and tell
them they have any say in the way the
state is being run. If Mugabe’s
spokesman George Charamba stands on a
pedestal and makes an announcement and
Tsvangirai stands on the same
pedestal and makes a contrary announcement
whom will the crowd believe?
Charamba, of course, because his word is Mugabe’s
word and Mugabe’s word is
final!
Now the world knows to what extent the government of national
unity is
dysfunctional.
Only last week Attorney General Johannes
Tomana was quoted as saying the
2008 power sharing agreement had expired and
that Mugabe was solely
responsible for the appointments of service chiefs.
This was such a profound
statement from the government’s chief law officer.
The statement must have
been received with a great deal of shock from anyone
interested in the
Zimbabwean crisis, particularly Zimbabweans
themselves.
If the power sharing has expired, then what is there?
What government is
ruling the country? Where does that government derive its
legitimacy from?
There was a harmonised election in 2008 which
was inconclusive regarding the
position of the president. The run-off that
followed did not produce a
legitimate result. So, for all intents and
purposes, if the power sharing
has expired, this country ceases to have a
president. The presidency cannot
automatically revert to Zanu PF as Tomana
seems to insinuate.
It has always been clear that in negotiating the
GPA Zanu PF was never
sincere; hence more three years on and there are still
fundamental issues
that are outstanding. Tomana’s outrageous utterances show
that Zanu PF has
unilaterally declared its independence from the
GPA.
Tomana is hardly the only Zanu PF personage who has been working
in such a
manner as to show the world that Zanu PF wouldn’t care less about
the GNU.
Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development
Ignatius Chombo
has been marauding across the countryside like a hurricane
firing
legitimately elected mayors and councillors and replacing them with
Zanu PF
apparatchiks. Tsvangirai has proved to be impotent in the face of
all this.
The legitimacy he had earned by beating Mugabe in the
March 2008
presidential election has now been eroded by the acquiescent way
he is
receiving Mugabe’s hammer blows right in the
face.
Zimbabweans must be watching all this with a certain
helplessness. Former
mediator in the conflict Thabo Mbeki made one
fundamental mistake in the
negotiations. By placing the fate of a whole
country exclusively in the
hands of Mugabe, Tsvangirai and to lesser extent
Mutambara this made the
whole population hostage to the whims of individuals
who would want to hold
on to power for power’s sake.
Ultimately,
Zimbabwe’s future will be decided by those same hostages but in
the
meantime, with Zanu PF we are in for the long haul.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
The re-appointment of Police
Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri to a new
term of office ending 2014
has exposed what had been feared most: that
Morgan Tsvangirai has become a
lame duck Prime Minister.
Chihuri’s term of office expired on January 31 and
on Wednesday Tsvangirai
announced to the nation that he and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara
had agreed with President Robert Mugabe that
Chihuri would perform in an
acting capacity.
But just a day
later, Presidential Spokesperson George Charamba announced
that Chihuri’s
term had actually been extended to 2014. His revelation
raises a number of
questions: Did Mugabe lie to Tsvangirai during their
meeting that Chihuri
would be acting police chief or is Tsvangirai
uninformed about goings-on in
government?
While it is not possible to get answers to these two
questions, what may be
undisputed is that Mugabe unilaterally re-appointed
Chihuri to a new term of
office without consulting
Tsvangirai.
While on paper Mugabe is supposed to be sharing power
with Tsvangirai, he is
in the habit of acting unilaterally on matters that
should be jointly
decided by the principals to the Global Political
Agreement.
Mugabe has perfected the art of disregarding Tsvangirai on
all key
appointments. He kept in office Attorney General Johannes Tomana and
Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono against the MDC formations’ demands and is
now
again extending the term of office of Chihuri and other service chiefs.
In
light of these unilateral appointments, Tsvangirai should be under no
illusion that he is sharing power with Mugabe.
At best the MDC-T
leader is a junior partner and at worst merely a
“passenger” in the
inclusive government. The sooner Tsvangirai accepts this
reality, the
better.
Appealing to Sadc for intervention may be the easier route
for Tsvangirai,
but clearly that won’t stop Mugabe from flagrantly violating
provisions of
the GPA.
So the only viable option for Tsvangirai
is to push for the conclusion of
the constitution-making process and the
subsequent holding of free and fair
elections that will give Zimbabweans a
chance to choose their leaders. Only
that way can Mugabe be stopped.
