http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
19 February 2013
The appointment of Jacob Mudenda as
chairperson of the Zimbabwe Human Rights
Commission has been followed by a
barrage of criticism directed towards the
principals in the
GPA.
Mudenda is a former ZANU PF governor for Matabeleland North and
served in
that capacity during the period when over 20,000 people were
killed in the
region by the North Korean trained 5th Brigade.
His
appointment to head the commission has provoked an angry response from
rights campaigners. Opponents said the move will further discredit an
inclusive government that has been on a relentless crackdown of members of
civil society organisations.
Social networking sites like Facebook
and Twitter saw a deluge of comments,
with many expressing shock and
condemning the latest development.
Gabriel Shumba, chairperson of the
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, told SW Radio
Africa’s Hidden Story program that
Mudenda’s appointment symbolizes what is
wrong with the inclusive
government.
He added that it diminishes the credibility of the human
rights system and
casts a shadow upon the reputation of the commission as a
whole.
‘The fact he was the governor during the Gukurahundi troubles will
infuriate
those who tried and failed to seek justice for their loved ones
who died,’
Shumba.
Our correspondent Lionel Saungweme told us the
appointment of Mudenda,
implicated in the Gukurahundi atrocities by his
association with ZANU PF,
has become a huge concern to many people in
Bulawayo.
‘Most people here are demanding he be removed as chairperson
saying his
elevation to that post would damage the integrity and reputation
of the
rights commission.
‘The people in Bulawayo are asking how on
earth is he going to look
objectively at human rights issues when he has
made a career out of
oppressing the masses during his stint as governor,’
Saungweme said.
In 2009 SW Radio Africa also exposed the fact that
Mudenda is involved,
along with many other ZANU PF officials, in illegal
hunting scams.
In 2004 Tourism Minister Francis Nhema granted a lucrative
hunting
concession to Mudenda, without going to tender.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
20 February
2013
A statement by Zimbabwe’s war vets has supported long held beliefs
that it
is Robert Mugabe who controls the output of the country’s diamond
fields,
with fears money from the gems will fund ZANU PF’s election
campaign.
The war vets said this week that they want cash, as well as
mining rights at
the Marange based Chiadzwa diamond fields, saying they had
applied for
mining licences through the Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (ZMDC).
The war vets’ representatives, Shadreck Makombe and
retired major-general
Richard Ruwodo, were addressing a Parliamentary
Portfolio committee on
Defence and Home Affairs on Monday. Ruwodo said their
efforts were being
stalled by “a lot of politics” in the Ministry of Mines,
which appeared
‘reluctant’ to give them licences.
“We have met ZMDC,
went to Marange, identified the place we wanted, did all
the paper work and
signed a non-disclosure agreement and the papers were
physically moved to the
Ministry of Mines where they have been bogged down,”
said Ruwodo.
He
then went on to state: “We were told that if we wanted to extract coal it
was
okay but with diamonds you have to see his Excellency, the
President.”
Numerous reports on the situation at Chiadzwa have pointed
the finger at the
Mugabe regime, which has been accused of controlling who
mines there and
where the profits go. Finance Minister Tendai Biti has
repeatedly stated
that the national treasury is not seeing any remittances
from the Chiadzwa
mines, despite the billions of dollars the area is said to
be worth.
A recent report by the international human rights monitor,
Partnership
Africa Canada (PAC), accuses the regime of stealing an estimated
US$2
billion worth of diamond proceeds since 2008.
“Marange’s
potential has been overshadowed by violence, smuggling,
corruption and most
of all, lost opportunity,” the PAC report said, adding:
“The scale of
illegality is mind-blowing” and has spread to “compromise most
of the
diamond markets of the world.”
Mugabe however has never been directly
linked as the man in charge, and the
comments by the war vets have
strengthened calls for tough legislation to
ensure the diamond sector is
transparent.
The PAC’s Alan Martin told SW Radio Africa that it is not
surprising that
Mugabe controls what is happening, saying their research has
indicated this
before. He said there is serious political interference in
the diamond
fields, with worrying consequences.
“The areas in
Zimbabwe’s government with any powers, are in the hands of
ZANU PF, like the
mining sector. Nothing has indicated that there is any
political will by
them to make the mines beneficial for Zimbabweans,” Martin
warned.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Reuters | 20 February, 2013
15:57
Zimbabwe police say they will crack down on rights groups that
operate
illegally and distribute false information to discredit President
Robert
Mugabe’s party before elections expected later this
year.
Rights groups in the southern African country say they are under
attack from
a police force they have long accused of trying to silence
opposition to
Mugabe’s nearly 33-year rule.
Police on Tuesday stormed
the offices of election-monitoring organisation
Zimbabwe Election Support
Network in the capital Harare, seizing documents,
radio receivers and mobile
phones.
Last week there were raids on a group that documents and reports
on cases of
political violence. Activists say the raids amount to
intimidation ahead of
possible presidential and parliamentary elections
later in the year.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told reporters on
Wednesday the raids
were lawful and would lead to arrests.
“These
lawful searches are not an onslaught on civil society but we act on
information to unearth criminal activities. We already have evidence at hand
which will definitely amount to arrests,” Charamba said.
“Certain
NGOs...are engaging in political processes to the detriment of
state
security and the stability of this country.”
Some unregistered human
rights groups were deploying monitors across the
country to gather
information, mainly at political rallies called by Mugabe’s
ZANU-PF,
Charamba added.
Rights organisations say their work in rural areas, where
the ruling party
has traditionally enjoyed support, is mostly to do with
educating voters and
increasing human rights awareness.
ZANU-PF says
the NGOs are agents of Western powers seeking to turn voters
against a party
they accuse of mismanaging a once promising economy and
using violence to
retain power.
Many rural areas have no access to state radio, which
enjoys a virtual
monopoly. But rights groups have distributed free radio
receivers that allow
villagers to tune in to independent stations
broadcasting into Zimbabwe from
outside the country.
“They are trying
to build up cases against certain parties to discredit the
forthcoming
elections. They are targeting ZANU-PF and not the other
parties,” said
Charamba.
Zimbabwe will hold a referendum on March 16 on a new
constitution agreed to
by Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement
for Democratic Change
after a protracted draft-making process delayed by
bickering and lack of
funding.
The referendum is to clear the way for
general elections.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
Staff
Reporter 20 hours 25 minutes ago
PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday
handed over a US$6,5 million digitised
state-of-the-art outside broadcasting
van and satellite uplink equipment to
the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
management.
The equipment was donated by the Chinese government and part of
it is first
of its kind in Africa. It enables a migration by ZBC from
analogue to
digital broadcasting as mandated by the International
Telecommunications
Union whose compliance deadline is June 15, 2015.
The
Chinese donation came at a time when the ZBC has entered into a joint
venture agreement with MultiChoice Africa to form a company called GO-TV
Zimbabwe that will rollout digital terrestial television
services.
Handing over the equipment at State House, the Head-of-State and
Government
and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces thanked the
Chinese
for the gift.
“I want to take this opportunity to express our
gratitude to China and our
Chinese friends here,” said President Mugabe.
“Teach us the road from
analogue to digitilisation. I hope it will not be a
long road to travel for
our experts.”
President Mugabe said the
equipment, boasting of latest broadcasting
technology, would immensely
benefit the country.
“Some of the equipment has come to Africa for the first
time,” he said. “If
we are the first, then we must beat our chests that
Zimbabwe has done it.
Zimbabwe has done it because it has been looking east
for some time.”
President Mugabe thanked the Chinese government for the
donation and the
Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity for keeping
abreast with the
latest technology, saying ZBC would not have acquired the
equipment had the
ministry remained ancient in its thinking.
“We must
throw our minds into the future. You must do some research. You
must listen
more and be curious and inquisitive. We know longer live in the
old world.
We live in a world in which technology plays a major part. If we
do not
train our people in those areas we remain behind. Study technology.
Study
science, make researches and have research centres right across.
Ministries
must have research departments.”
Speaking at the same occassion, Media,
Information and Publicity Minister
Webster Shamu revealed the
ZBC/Multichoice’s GO-TV Zimbabwe joint venture
deal.
“We initiated
partnership discussions with MultiChoice Africa, holding
several meetings
that ended in deadlock largely over shareholding until
mid-January this year
when we reached an agreement on a joint venture
company called GO-TV
Zimbabwe to roll out a digital terrestial television
service starting with
urban centres,” he said.
“Transmedia, itself a shareholder in GO-TV, would
use proceeds from this
joint venture to expand the network to the rest of
the country as per its
mandate.”
MultiChoice has successfully launched
this technology (GO-TV) in Zambia,
Namibia, Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. In
Zimbabwe, it has been providing
satellite broadcast services through a
franchise held by a local company,
Skynet.
MultiChoice holds a 60 percent
shareholding in GO-TV Zimbabwe as it provides
funding, content, technology
and training while Government has a 30 percent
stake through Transmedia and
Skynet 10 percent.
“Another benefit for Transmedia is that it is now a
co-franchise with Skynet
over satellite services, which entitles it to
US$1,30 for every local
subscriber. That money is paid directly into
Transmedia account and will be
used to expand transmission nationwide,”
Minister Shamu said.
The roll-out plan begins with Harare, Bulawayo,
Chitungwiza, Gweru, Mutare
and Victoria Falls.
Minister Shamu said the
Chinese government was also “assisting us in other
areas, including radio-up
link and a new printing press for Zimpapers.”
He said there were two parts to
the digitalisation programme for the
country.
“That is the digitalisation
of the ZBC studios and its electronic news
gathering side, and the
transmission side to carry both radio and television
signals countrywide,”
he said.
“We have made real progress on radio transmission which is currently
at 80
percent national coverage largely funded from Transmedia resources.
The
challenge remains television. However, we have floated a Special Formal
Tender for studio digitalisation.”
Minister Shamu said if the country was
to meet the Sadc Broadcasting Digital
Migration cut-off date deadline,
alternative financing models have to be
found. n Zimpapers, Minister Shamu
said the publishing group remained a
leader in the industry both editorially
and commercially.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
19/02/2013 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
THE next elections will likely be a closely fought
contest with President
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party marginally edging Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T, a new survey has
suggested.
Zimbabwe is set to hold fresh elections later this year to end
the uneasy
coalition between Mugabe and Tsvangirai which was formed after
violent but
inconclusive elections in 2008.
And a survey carried out
in November last year by the Harare-based Mass
Public Opinion Institute
(MPOI) has suggested that Mugabe, who has been in
power since independence
in 1980, would marginally edge the contest.
Revealing the results
Tuesday, MPOI researcher, Heather Koga, said Zanu PF
would likely win the
Parliamentary elections with 33 percent of the vote
against 32 percent for
the MDC-T.
“The survey results suggest that the forthcoming parliamentary
elections
will be a closely fought battle between Zanu PF (33%) and MDC-T
(32%), while
support for other political parties candidates such as Mavambo
Kusile Dawn
and ZAPU approach zero (to the nearest whole number) with the
MDC (Ncube)
seeming to be maintaining its 1% support level.”
Koga
said about 30 percent of the 1,200 people interviewed had declined to
reveal
which parties they would vote for.
“It must be noted that from the whole
number of people asked during the
research 30% of the sample was not willing
to reveal their political
affiliation. Given this we are not sure which
political party these people
will vote for come the election day,” Koga told
NewZimbabwe.com
MPOI also carried out another opinion survey for the
United States-based
Freedom House last year which suggested support for the
MDC-T had collapsed
from 38 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2012. By
contrast, backing for Zanu
PF was said to have increased to 31 percent from
17 percent, over the same
period.
The Freedom House survey also
suggested Mugabe would command the support of
31 percent of the presidential
vote, compared to 19 percent for Tsvangirai,
an alarming prospect for the
MDC-T whose popularity stood at a healthy 55
percent no more than four years
ago.
Zanu PF commentators however, dismissed the survey as an attempt by
the
MDC-T’s Western allies to shock the party out of a perceived complacency
with the survey’s lead researcher, South African academic Susan Booysen,
noting that: “Perhaps they (MDC-T) think they are crown prince that need
only wait for Mugabe to go for it to fall in their lap. This is a wake-up
call for them that there is no honeymoon.”
Tsvangirai said he would
take note of the results and institute corrective
action.
“We take not of
some of the observations and will take corrective measures
where they are
necessary. We are a party that always looks at these issues
constantly,” he
said.
“We don’t take people for granted by the way we constantly review
our
performance in all departments.”
Meanwhile, Koga said the latest
survey also showed that most Zimbabweans
wanted new elections to end the
coalition government.
“68 percent of Zimbabweans of voting age were of
the view that the country
is ready to hold elections,” she said.
“(Those)
who said the country is not ready to hold elections by March 2013
suggested
that the Inclusive government should continue indefinitely.
“The need to
engage international observers (eg from SADC, UN, EU) to ensure
free and
fair elections in the country was also a major suggestion.”
The coalition
administration is credited with easing political tensions and
ending a
decade-long economic crisis but further progress has been hampered
by
constant bickering and policy differences between the parties.
A
constitutional referendum has been set for March 16, with elections
expected
later in the year although Tsvangirai suggested the polls may be
held in
July.
http://www.radiovop.com
Bulawayo, February 20, 2013-
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by
Professor Welshman Ncube says it
will not engage in coalition talks with the
mainstream MDC -T.
In an
exclusive interview here the MDC spokesperson, Nhlanhla Dube, declined
there
had been such talks, adding they would never be anything like that in
the
near future.
“It is our hope that this final clarification will put to
rest the often
annoying and pushy attempts through public pontification for
a coalition of
any shape, form or type by those who want an MDC -T success
at our and the
people’s expense,” said Dube.
“This for us is a
critical time in our pursuit of electoral success and
those who think they
can distract our impetus in working diligently towards
a successful election
outcome should now know that the game is up. Our
determination to succeed on
the basis of principle, truth and
non-prostitution of our cardinal values of
democratic change where the
masses are free to choose from a multiple of
political parties their own
leader remains unflinching and undeterred. This
for us is the very
cornerstone of democracy,” explained Dube.
He
added that It has become crystal clear that due to feelings of inadequacy
in
some quarters, certain elements have switched to panic mode and are thus
agitating for the so called coalition, which will never
happen.
“History knows that we have tried this route before, history also
records
that we went on a limb in attempting to find common ground with the
MDC -T
in 2008, history further remembers that we came out of that attempt
the
worse for wear, hence to us that was a lesson well learnt.
“We
stand guided by the resolutions made at our last elective party congress
that we will visit every village, homestead, growth point, farm, and town,
climb every mountain and cross every river to explain our policies to
Zimbabweans and seek their vote and mandate. We have grown from being part
of a political party to the political party. We are emboldened by the
reality that since the last elections, we have grown bigger and better and
meaner,” said Dube.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
20
February 2013
A ‘deal’ struck between Belgium and the UK over Zimbabwe’s
diamonds could
see human rights in the country being sidelined, with Europe
planning to
lift a Zim diamond blacklist after elections.
The details
of this deal emerged after a meeting of European Union (EU)
diplomats in
Brussels on Monday, where it was decided that 21 individuals
and one company
would be removed from the bloc’s list of targeted sanctions
on Zimbabwe.
This partial lifting came with assurances that the measures
will be totally
lifted after a credible constitutional referendum.
Belgian foreign
minister Didier Reynders also said that a block on European
trade with the
Zim state run mining entity, the ZMDC, would be removed after
a credible
election. He told press in Brussels on Monday that this would be
automatic a
month after the poll, unless all 27 EU countries agree “the
elections have
not been peaceful, transparent, credible or they have
reasonable grounds to
believe ZMDC has been involved in activities
undermining democracy during
the election.”
Belgium has been pushing for the measures against the ZMDC
to be dropped
immediately, a call that has seen the country face criticism
for putting its
economic interests in Zimbabwe ahead of human rights
concerns. With the EU
now sanctioning the ‘diamonds-for-democracy’ deal, the
European grouping is
facing the same criticism.
Tiseke Kasambala, the
Africa Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch, said
Wednesday that there
are ongoing human rights concerns at the Chiadzwa
diamond
fields.
“Our reports have highlighted the grave human rights abuses
there,
particularly in 2008, where up to 100 people were killed. More
recent,
credible reports by groups like Global Witness and Partnership
Africa
Canada, have pointed to a lack of transparency and suggested that
perhaps
the diamond proceeds will be used to fund abuses and repression
ahead of
possible elections this year,” Kasambala told SW Radio
Africa.
She added: “The EU is putting profits before principle in coming
to this
kind of deal.”
She criticised the EU for making this deal and
its decision on Zimbabwe’s
targeted sanctions, before real reforms have been
made.
“We believe the EU should have look at the issues holistically, so
look at
human rights reforms on the ground and at Chiadzwa and whether those
have
taken place before, before coming up with this agreement,” she
said.
She warned that the “EU has given Mugabe and ZANU PF free rein to
continue
its repression of the people of Zimbabwe without addressing core
issue of
accountability for past human rights abuses and a lack of human
rights
reform.”
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Wednesday, 20 February 2013 12:46
HARARE -
Government ditched a private equity investment firm that
audaciously
stitched the first Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Limited (Zimplats)
indigenisation
deal before engaging Brainworks Capital, the Daily News can
reveal.
Fronted by managing partner Kura Sibanda, investment firm Top
Harvest had
its mandate to advise government on the Zimplats deal withdrawn
in 2011 by
then National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board
(Nieeb)
chairperson David Chapfika after receiving instructions from
Indigenisation
minister Saviour Kasukuwere.
Chapfika was later to be
replaced by retired lieutenant general Mike
Nyambuya, under whose leadership
Brain Works Capital was hired to negotiate
the Zimplats deal on behalf of
government.
Apparently, Top Harvest was terminated because the proposals
it had put
forward were said to be unacceptable to President Robert
Mugabe.
The deal involved a community ownership trust and vendor
financing, which
Kasukuwere claimed then would be outrightly rejected by
Mugabe.
And yet, Brainworks — which was hired without going to tender and
entitled
to 4,5 percent commission of value for every empowerment deal —
structured a
more-or-less similar deal, complete with the earlier maligned
vendor
financing provisions.
“Kasukuwere said we are not going to pay
for our resources because there is
no vendor, there is no vendor financing,”
Sibanda told the Daily News from
Johannesburg.
“The minister said who
is a vendor? We own our platinum 100 percent.
Curiously, the same platinum
is now being vendor-financed.”
Kasukuwere was yesterday locked in
meetings, but said over the weekend he
was “sick and tired of those who sit
and look for mistakes.”
The Daily News understands self-exiled
millionaire tycoon Mutumwa Mawere was
heavily involved in the Top Harvest
deal and in February 2011 facilitated a
meeting between a Zimbabwe
government delegation led by Kasukuwere with the
Royal Bafokeng nation in
South Africa to discuss various issues including
mineral rights and benefit
sharing with communities.
The Royal Bafokeng is a kingdom with 150 000
people covering 1 400 square km
that is part of a stretch of South Africa’s
platinum belt.
Its empowerment model has managed to transform mineral
wealth into social
stability, funnelling cash earned from its Royal Bafokeng
Platinum Company
into a mini-sovereign wealth fund that provides cash for
schools, clinics
and infrastructure.
Bafokeng and its capital,
Phokeng, stand out as a beacon of success amid the
poverty of the platinum
belt, where sprawling tin-hut shanty towns sit
alongside billion-dollar
mines digging out the precious metal.
The Zimbabwe delegation apparently
wanted Mawere to facilitate a study tour
of the Bafokeng nation, with a view
to implementing a similar model back
home.
The Daily News understands
Mawere facilitated the three-day visit, where Top
Harvest opened talks that
culminated in the financial advisors being hired
to handle the Zimplats
transaction.
Mawere’s Africa Heritage Society hosted a dinner at the Da
Vinci Hotel in
Sandton for the delegation and a number of stakeholders,
including mining
companies that have existing and potential interest in
Zimbabwe.
The meeting was requested by Prince Mupazviriho, the permanent
secretary in
the Indigenisation ministry, and was attended by Kasukuwere,
Local
Government and Urban Development minister Ignatius Chombo and
Mhondoro-Ngezi
MP Bright Matonga.
The delegation also included
Gilbert Marange (Chief Marange), Samson
Katsande (Chief Nyamukoho), Stanley
Wurayayi Mhondoro (Chief Zvimba),
Zamantuwa Mukwanazi (Chief Ngungumbane),
Mtshane Khumalo, the deputy
president of the Chief’s Council and Brown Shopo
(Chief Chivero).
Chapfika, Nieeb chief executive Wilson Gwatiringa and
legal officer Theresa
Maguma also attended the meeting, together with five
journalists from
various media houses.
Later, Top Harvest was given
the mandate to negotiate and conclude the
Zimplats deal, but Mawere says
Kasukuwere did not want Matonga involved in
the talks.
“Maybe it was
because of their internal politics,” Mawere said from
Johannesburg
yesterday.
Top Harvest also facilitated meetings between Kasukuwere and
David Brown,
the CEO of Implats — which is Zimplats’ parent
company.
Top Harvest was later to set up the first community share
ownership trust
for Zimplats.
The South Africa-registered investment
firm structured a community-based
empowerment model for the Mhondoro-Ngezi
community.
But it was rejected by Kasukuwere ostensibly because
government was
spearheading broad-based indigenisation and economic
empowerment especially
aimed at empowering not only communities endowed with
natural resources but
the whole nation.
Everything later unravelled
when Brainworks came into the picture, clinching
the lucrative financial
advisory role that allows it to pocket approximately
$45 million from the
Zimplats deal as commission, with Top Harvest shunted
aside. - Gift Phiri,
Political Editor
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
Staff Reporter 21
hours 1 minute ago
NATIONAL Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment board chairman Retired
Brigadier Mike Nyambuya has scoffed at
claims that there was no transparency
in the manner the Zimplats
indigenisation deal was done saying the
allegations were baseless.
In an
interview yesterday, Nyambuya said the “onslaught” on the
indigenisation
programme by some sections of the media were merely
unnecessary
pronouncements by certain opponents of the broad based
empowerment
initiative.
Under the indigenisation law, foreign owned companies are
required to
turnover at least 51 percent of their shareholdings to black
indigenous
Zimbabweans.
Last week, a local daily published a story
headlined “Indigenisation under
threat” which potrayed that the empowerment
drive had “turned out to be a
massive cash cow for well-heeled and
politically-connected elites,” claiming
its “three months” investigation had
unearthed “misrepresentation(s) and
grand looting.”
The paper said any
arising disputes would be resolved by the British courts
while advisors to
the transaction, Brainworks Capital had not been properly
appointed.
There were also comments in the media which created impression
that the deal
would create debt for the country and was concluded outside
the country’s
laws.
Contrary to the allegations, Nyambuya said the term
sheet was a non binding
agreement and definitive adding “neither party
therefore is bound by these
terms of agreement.”
“NIEEB and Zimplats will
begin to engage through their technical legal teams
on the substantive and
binding provisions of the indigenisation agreements.
In the meantime, the
term sheet must be taken as a guiding document
confirming the agreement by
Zimplats to comply with the indigenisation
laws,” he said.
Mr Nyambuya
said Zimplats, by virtue of its status as a foreign owned
company had a
legal obligation to sell 51 percent to indigenous Zimbabweans.
Impala
Platinum, the world’s second largest platinum miners owns 87 percent
in
Zimplats.
“So to say the transaction was done outside the laws is
mischievous,” he
added.
Commenting on allegations that the Zimplats
transaction would be subjects of
English courts, Mr Nyambuya said clause 28
of the pact states that the term
sheet will be governed and interpreted in
accordance with the laws of
Zimbabwe. Mr Nyambuya said issues relating to
vendor financing, a mechanism
that would be used to finance the transaction,
cession and pledge will be
interpreted according to “English commercial law”
not resolved in “English
Courts.”
This is because the bulk of Zimbabwe’s
commercial law is interpreted using
English law. Sections 89 of the current
law states that the law to be
applied in Zimbabwe shall be the law
applicable at the Cape of Good Hope in
1891. At that time the law applicable
at the Cape colony was a hybrid of
Roman Dutch law and English law. English
law mostly governed mercantile law,
which is still the case to date.
He
said Clause 27 states that any dispute arising out of the term sheet will
be
arbitrated under UNCITRAL in London. UNCITRAL is the United Nations
Commission on Trade Law, considered a reputable and neutral dispute
resolution forum between private citizens and member states of the United
Nations. Zimbabwe is a member state of the UN and subject UNCITRAL by
consent.
On the appointment of Brainworks, Mr Nyambuya said the advisors’
mandate was
formalised through a letter signed by NIEEB on June 8, last
year.
The appointment was “purely” based on merit and experience that
Brainworks
had shown.
Prior to the appointment of Brainworks, NIEEB had
sought services of CBZ
Bank, MMC Capital, Vunani Capital, Renaissance
Financial Holdings, Capvest
Capital and Genesis Global Finance. Mr Nyambuya
defended the vendor
financing instrument saying it was a more viable option.
Even in South
Africa, most BBEs were financed through vendor
financing.
In 2004, Implats offered 15 percent stake of Zimplats to
indigenous
Zimbabweans for US$31 million then, but none of the interested
consortium
successfully raised the money. “If we had not taken this route,
the
transaction would not have sailed through,” he said. “However, any
Government agent is free to come up with an alternative.”
The
indigenisation programme, now in full swing has seen creation of various
community share ownership schemes with companies donating seed capital for
developmental projects. Herald
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
11:57
HARARE - Finance minister Tendai Biti (pictured) has promised a
huge shift
in the country’s indigenisation policy if his MDC party romps to
victory in
the forthcoming watershed poll.
The MDC secretary-general
says his party wants to “re-think” President
Robert Mugabe’s empowerment
policies in statements that show a tense
election campaign.
It’s been
a fractious — and occasionally controversial — campaign with just
a few
months to go to the harmonised election with MDC presidential
candidate
Morgan Tsvangirai in a statistical dead-heat with Mugabe in the
latest
opinion polls.
Biti upped the ante at a weekend campaign stop at
Mukandabhutsu and
Runniville shops in Harare East, playing to his core
supporters with some
aggressive rhetoric about the incumbent’s
indigenisation policy.
Essentially, he promised more pragmatism and less
ideology, and shredded the
Zanu PF indigenisation policy is an elitist
programme.
The lawyer-cum-politician said the MDC will revisit all
agreements signed by
Zimplats, Mimosa, Unki mines which have exposed how
only a few people
connected to Zanu PF are benefiting from the
policy.
“The MDC is clear. The party of excellence will revisit and
review all
clandestine and incestuous agreements made at night and in
secret. We will
not legitimise such agreements,” Biti said.
“The MDC
wants to know how many jobs each company will create. We want value
addition
on our raw materials thus creating jobs. Let platinum be used to
make cars
in our country, so that our children will have jobs in here.”
The
46-year-old made sure to touch one of Mugabe’s sore points — alleged
theft
of diamond cash by Chinese mining firms linked to the military digging
for
gems in the Marange fields, with whom the veteran leader has developed
an
elaborate political and technological cooperation.
It’s become a tougher
election than Mugabe would have liked.
“Right now, we do not know what is
happening to our diamonds,” Biti said.
“We are going to audit all the
diamond income, to trace where the money came
from and went to. We are
watching these things. The people of Zimbabwe are
watching. White collar
crimes will and cannot be hidden because there will
always be an audit
trail,” he said.
As well as lambasting economic incompetence, Biti has
accused Mugabe of
“rewarding the corrupt” hoping to benefit from the growing
perception that
senior members of the Zanu PF leader’s administration have
grown rich in
power while others are involved in diamond trading, protected
by a justice
system that do the executive’s bidding.
But last month
Mugabe was forced to suspend a Manicaland provincial
executive working on
his campaign after details emerged that they could have
received bundles of
money from a diamond firms.
The scandal was reported relentlessly on the
pro-Mugabe State television
station and revived questions about some of the
corrupt Zanu PF elite.
But for all the talk of seismic shifts —perhaps
intended to make Zimbabwe a
more palatable option for businesses around the
world — analysts caution
against making too much of Biti’ campaign speeches,
particularly his
dismissal of Mugabe’s Indigenisation policy.
Biti
said Zanu PF’s biggest failure was economic mismanagement and lack of
love,
and said if the ex-majority party had listened to the cries of the
people,
they would have invested in infrastructure that would see all the
people
benefitting.
“In the last four years, I was in the cockpit as the Finance
minister and I
discovered that it’s not difficult to run an economy, but you
need the
correct ingredients,” he said.
“When managing the economy,
the first ingredient is love. You must love your
people. You must know your
priority. The people are saying we want schools
and you buy arms of war,
which is a wrong order. When you buy vehicles and
build stadiums when people
need housing then you are offside.”
Biti said the first step towards
creating the one million jobs contained in
his party’s economic blueprint
Juice, was to have foreign direct investment
(FDI), which encourages
investors to capitalise on local industries.
“FDI does not come from
China alone,” he said. “As MDC, we have friends the
world over, and we are
proud of having all these friends. Some say Look
East, others say Look West
but as MDC we look forward. We want every foreign
investor to come into our
beautiful country.” - Gift Phiri, Political Editor
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Wednesday, 20 February
2013 12:17
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe's civil society groups say Zanu PF has
resorted to
“smart violence” in rural areas as the country heads for a
referendum and
watershed elections later this year.
The groups say it
will be difficult for regional grouping Sadc, which
facilitated Zimbabwe’s
power-sharing accord, to detect this new form of
violence.
Addressing
journalists in Bulawayo on Monday, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
spokesperson
Thabani Nyoni said Zanu PF has come up with a different form of
organised
violence.
And it is different from 2008 elections where supporters of the
opposition
were being physically attacked, he said.
Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition is an umbrella body for over a dozen rights
groups,
churches and student movements.
“They now have a new and organised form
of violence which includes going to
communities demanding identification
cards and promising people food but
those identification cards are never
returned so that people not aligned to
Zanu PF won’t be able to vote. Some
are bringing truckloads of food to the
communities and bar those not aligned
to their party from getting the food.
“You also hear some telling the
communities that you will die from hunger if
you are not a member of our
party. Some will tell you that you won’t benefit
from the indigenisation
programme because you are not aligned to our party,”
said Nyoni.
He
said arrests of political and human rights activists as well as the
disruption and banning of meetings organised by such activists using harsh
security laws continued unabated. - Pindai Dube
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
Wednesday, 20
February 2013 12:11
HARARE - The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has
admitted to the
long-held view that it is staffed with a militarised
secretariat.
Addressing delegates at a workshop on conflict management in
Harare
yesterday, Zec commissioner Bessie Fadzai Nhandara admitted some of
the
electoral body’s employees were once employed by the army and Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
She, however, claimed they resigned
when they joined the commission.
Nhandara did not provide any proof to
back her claims, but said it was
impossible to sack them, likening it to
“killing step children of a woman
you want to marry”.
“Some, not all
of the members of our secretariat, came from the various
institutions you
claim they came from but they left years back to join us,”
Nhandara
said.
“Since then they have been accomplished administrators capable of
doing a
diligent and professional job.
“In life we do not kill step
children so a marriage starts on a clean slate
and by the same speaking the
fact that we have formed a new Zec does not
mean that we should kill our
children to start afresh — we will work with
them,” she
said.
Nhandara said it is important to deal with issues at hand and how
people can
move forward instead of dwelling on the past.
Civil
society groups such as the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) and the
MDC
formations say Zimbabwe’s chances of conducting a credible, free and
fair
election remain slim because the Zec secretariat remains “problematic,
partisan, and militarised”.
They argue the relationship between most
of Zec’s employees and army, whose
top brass regularly promises to subvert
electoral outcomes should any other
candidate apart from President Robert
Mugabe wins the election, does not
augur well for the polls.
ZDI says
given the “partisan role of the security establishment in the
political and
electoral affairs of Zimbabwe,” the capacity of Zec to deliver
a credible
poll is very doubtful.
Meanwhile, Zec deputy chairperson Joyce Kazembe
lashed out at Zimbabwe
Election Support Network’s Rindai Chipfunde-Vava’s
presentation on the role
of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the
prevention, management and
resolution of election-related
conflicts.
Chipfunde-Vava had praised CSOs saying they played a very
important role in
this regard and deserved to be given enough space to
operate.
This did not go down well with Kazembe, who felt the
presentation was
biased, accusing CSOs of being partisan and
unpatriotic.
“Vava’s presentation was one sided because on the ground we
have had
problems with their partisan nature and interference with our
work,” she
said.
“I have found that some civil societies are not
civil. They are not
patriotic and matriotic’ (sic) enough to work for the
enhancement of peace.
Zimbabwe is where it is now thanks to the CSOs’
activities as they dance to
the whims of those western governments that
sponsor them,” Kazembe said. -
Mugove Tafirenyika
http://www.washingtonpost.com
By Associated Press,
Updated: Thursday, February 21, 2:42 AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe
prison officials said Wednesday that they are
not in a hurry to engage the
services of a newly-appointed hangman to
execute the 77 inmates on death row
and will review their sentences.
Prison authorities want to give
prisoners facing execution a “chance to
live,” official Huggins Machingauta
said. He said all death sentences will
be brought before the cabinet of
ministers for a review to commute them to
life.
“We are in no
hurry to hang anyone. It is our wish and hope that they get a
reprieve,”
Machingauta said.
The hangman’s post was vacant for about seven years
since the previous one
retired in 2005. State media reported earlier this
month that prison
officials said they found a new hangman.
A new
proposed draft constitution endorsed by the country’s two main
political
parties exempts women, men under 21 and those over 70 from the
death
penalty. The charter, which will be put to a referendum on March 16,
only
allows for the imposition of death penalty for cases of “aggravated
murder.”
Civic rights groups, however, want the “total abolition” of
the death
penalty.
Edison Chiota, head of a prisoners’ rights group,
Zimbabwe Association for
Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the
Offender, said Wednesday his
group is against what he called the selective
way the law would be applied
under the new constitution.
“People are
all the same without taking gender and age differences into
account,” Chiota
said.
He said if Zimbabwe decides to continue with the executions it must
adopt
international best practices of execution such as the lethal injection
that
do not cause excessive pain.
Chiota said Zimbabwe uses the
oldest method of hanging called “the long
drop” where the prisoner is made
to stand on a trap door. The trap door is
opened for the noose to break or
dislocate the neck.
“Hangings are outdated,” Chiota said.
A prison
officer who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity
for fear
of losing his job said he is still haunted by several executions he
witnessed in his 20 years of service at Harare’s Central Prison.
“The
method is gruesome and inhumane, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to witness
it,”
he said. “One only needs to read the log book in which the executions
are
entered to have chills run down the spine.”
The officer said it was a
“harrowing ordeal to have to accompany someone to
such a brutal end.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
20 February
2013
High Court Judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, on Wednesday denied bail
to five
MDC-T activists standing trial for the murder of a police officer in
Harare
two years ago.
Defence lawyer Charles Kwaramba told SW Radio
Africa that the judge ruled
once again that the five activists; Last
Maengahama, Tungamirai Madzokere,
Simon Mapanzure, Yvonne Musarurwa and
Rebecca Mafukeni, were a flight risk.
The five are part of the 29 MDC-T
members who are facing charges of
murdering police inspector Petros Mutedza
in Glen View in May 2011. The
MDC-T has dismissed the charges as
‘trumped-up’. The activists have been
held in remand prison since their
arrests in 2011.
Their other colleagues, who include the party’s Youth
Assembly President
Solomon Madzore, were granted bail by the High Court last
year. Kwaramba
said they were now looking at lodging an appeal with the
Supreme Court to
look at the plight of their clients.
‘If the others
facing similar charges were granted bail, why not them. It
somehow surprises
us that they keep being denied bail by the same judge who
granted the others
their freedom,’ Kwaramba said.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Nomalanga Moyo
20 February
2013
Journalist Obey Manayiti, who spent a night in police cells after
being
arrested for allegedly insulting a ZANU PF official, has been
released.
Manayiti, an employee of the independent NewsDay newspaper, was
arrested by
police in Mutare on Monday, and charged under the Criminal Law
(Codification
& Reform) Act.
He was released without charge
Wednesday, with the area prosecutor referring
the docket back to the police
for further investigation.
Manayiti’s lawyer, Rangarirai Mubata, told SW
Radio Africa that the
prosecutor also queried why only Mukodza’s statement
had been recorded by
the police.
Mubata said it was obvious from the
docket that Mukodza had a “bone to chew”
with Manayiti, considering that the
reporter has been exposing the corrupt
activities involving Mukodza and
other ZANU PF officials in Manicaland.
Last month, President Robert
Mugabe was reported as having ordered police to
investigate fraud
allegations involving more than $750,000 in diamond money,
in which Mukodza
and five others were implicated.
Mukodza has since been suspended from
his post as provincial youth chairman
for Manicaland on allegations of
corruption, nepotism, provoking divisions
within the ruling party, as well
as insubordination.
Manayiti recounted how Mukodza pursued him into a
car, after the two had
exchanged greetings, threatening him with death. The
reporter fled to the
police station where he intended to make a
report.
However upon arrival, the police refused to file Manayiti’s
report and
instead, arrested and charged him with criminal insult after
Mukodza had
lodged an earlier complaint claiming the reporter had insulted
him.
Zimbabwe’s media environment is one of the most tightly restricted
in the
world with independent journalists constantly being harassed,
physically
attacked, arrested and detained while doing their work.
A
recent report by pro-democracy institute Freedom House indicates that many
were harassed while attempting to cover news events or sensitive political
issues such as the constitutional reform process, parliamentary hearings, or
the ongoing investigation into abuses at diamond mines.
Dozens of
Zimbabwean journalists have fled the country in the past decade,
according
to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The country boasts
one of the
largest numbers of exiled journalists in the world.
Last year, Freedom
House ranked Zimbabwe 172 out of 197 countries, the worst
overall ranking in
the southern Africa region. Zimbabwe.
1. There is devolution of power and responsibilities to lower tiers of government and especially to the provincial tiers of government.
2.The President has a limited term of office of a maximum of two five year terms. Other key officers of the state including commanders of security services, permanent secretaries, the clerk of parliament also have limited terms of office.
3. Dual or multiple citizenship is guaranteed in respect of all Zimbabwean citizens by birth. Multiple or dual citizenship is allowed in respect of Zimbabwean citizens by descent and registration although this may be prohibited by an act of parliament.
4. The people formerly commonly referred to as aliens, who were born in Zimbabwe but of parents from the SADC region are now Zimbabweans by birth and as such they are entitled to vote or be voted for.
5. All Zimbabwean citizens irrespective of circumstance are entitled to vote and are entitled to free and fair elections without any form of violence and other electoral malpractices
6. All Zimbabwean workers, including civil servants have a right to fair and reasonable wages, as well as fair and safe labour standards and practices.
7. All Zimbabwean workers including civil servants have the right to collective bargaining for the determination of their wages and other conditions of service.
8. There is now an independent National Prosecuting Authority in charge if all criminal prosecutions meaning that the Attorney General being legal advisor to government no longer has prosecuting powers.
9. All security services are under the constitution and subject to parliamentary oversight. Members of security services cannot be members of political parties. They are not allowed to further or prejudice the interests of a political party or cause and shall observe fundamental rights and freedoms.
10. There is now a National Peace and Reconciliation Commission which among other things deals with post conflict justice healing and reconciliation.
11. Every Zimbabwean is entitled to free basic education.
12. The elderly are entitled to reasonable care and assistance, health care and medical assistance, and social security and welfare from the state.
13. Every child is entitled among other things to the provision of a birth certificate, education, health care services, nutrition and shelter. They may not be recruited into any militia.
14. The veterans of the liberation struggle include those who fought in the war of liberation and those who assisted the fighters, detainees and restrictees. As such they are entitled to recognition and suitable welfare such as pension and access to basic health care.
15. The people living with disabilities are now entitled to the means to make them more self reliant and to state funded education and treatment when they need it.
16. There is now established a Constitutional Court which among other things
deals with the protection of the people against human rights abuses.
17. Every Zimbabwean person has freedom from torture, cruel, inhumane and
degrading treatment or punishment.
18. Every person has the right to personal security and has freedom from all forms of violence. Further every person has the right to privacy and against any entry or search of their homes property or premises.
19. All elections are going to be held in the last month of the Presidential term meaning that the election period has been made certain.
20. The Anti Corruption commission can direct the Commissioner General of police to investigate and act on alleged corruption and when so ordered the Commissioner General of police shall obey the directive.
A New Constitution: A New Zimbabwe. Vote YES!!
MDC Information & Publicity Department
Harvest House
44 Nelson
Mandela Ave
Harare
Zimbabwe
Tel: 00263 4 770 708
MDC also hopes for elections
in July
17 February 2013
Peta Thornycroft
For better or for
worse, for richer, with a bit of luck, or for poorer, if
things go wrong
again, Zimbabwe is in election mode for the next six months.
A government
gazette was published on Friday confirming that March 16 had
been set aside
for a referendum for a new constitution.
The referendum ought to be little
more than a public rubber stamp for the
draft charter, as it was negotiated
and agreed by the country's only
significant parties, the two Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) formations
and Zanu-PF.
But Zimbabwe is broke and
Finance Minister Tendai Biti says there is no
money for any polls. He and
Zanu-PF Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa have
approached the UN for
help.
"Even if the money was in place now, and it is not, it is a massive
task to
set up infrastructure for the poll," said an insider from the
negotiating
teams that concluded the charter.
To make things a little
easier though, for this referendum voters will be
allowed to use their ID
document and so do not have to be registered as
voters.
They can also
vote at any polling station in the country, which may mean
long queues in
urban areas, where there have been massive population
increases in recent
years, according to the recent census.
The early date for the referendum
surprised everyone, including most members
of all three political parties
who negotiated the draft charter, as well as
the South African mediators. It
also surprised Zimbabwe election officials,
who will have to erect more than
9 000 polling booths; print more than 5
million ballots; recruit, train and
transport more than 30 000 people for
polling day; and ensure that the pink
security ink to prevent double voting
is imported in time.
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai said he hoped there would be simultaneous
presidential,
parliamentary, senate and local government elections before
the end of July.
"If Mugabe's position that we need a free and fair election
is a ruse, then
he would have cheated me," he said.
Like many affected by Zanu-PF political
violence in the last polls, he is
hoping for a July election date as there
will be considerable international
attention focused on Zimbabwe then, just
before a UN tourism summit at
Victoria Falls in August.
Many hope that
the summit will make it more difficult for those who want to
attack MDC
personnel.
Counting on a tourism summit to guarantee Mugabe won't again
unleash his
thugs on the MDC is, however, a sign of desperation and a tacit
admission
that the reforms of the security agencies - to make them
politically
neutral - which were supposed to take place before elections,
will not take
place.
The country is clearly not fully ready for elections
in other ways too, but
Tsvangirai seems to have grown impatient.
Shortly
after the unity government was sworn into power in February 2009,
negotiations began to establish new institutions to support democracy -
including democratic elections.
Retired judge Simpson Mutambanengwe was
appointed in 2010 to lead the
Zimbabwe Election Commission. Some say he
turned up for work so seldom, the
commission was run on a day-to-day basis
by his deputy, Zanu-PF loyalist
Joyce Kazembe, a senior member of the old
disgraced and partisan election
commission that deliberately delayed
releasing results of the 2008 election
for five weeks - evidently to
manipulate them.
Judge Mutambanengwe, in his eighties, resigned this week,
citing health
issues.
Now many are scrabbling for a replacement retired
judge who will satisfy the
two MDCs and Zanu-PF.
Reg Austin, the chairman
of the new Human Rights Commission, quit in
December after two years of
operating without legislation, offices, or
financial
resources.
Eventually legislation emerged, which he said was deficient. -
Independent
Foreign Service
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Posted by admin on
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
OPINION:
By Wilbert Mukori
On
the 16 March 2013 Zimbabweans will be voting in a referendum. If they
THINK
and BELIEVE the COPAC constitution is the DEMOCRATIC constitution they
were
promised in the GPA, they must vote yes but if they think otherwise
then
they must vote no.
My position is that the COPAC constitution is too weak
and feeble to deliver
any basic rights, including the right to free and fair
elections, with a
free media and free of violence.
Without even
reading the draft constitution one can already see the upcoming
elections
will not be free and fair; media is not free and the
infrastructure behind
the violence in past elections is still there and
primed for action. These
thing are not going to suddenly disappear the day
COPAC is enacted into
law.
But what is it in the COPAC constitution itself that makes me say it
is
rubbish?
A constitution is a social contract between each and
every one of us to our
fellow countrymen and women alive, and yet to be
born, to do unto each and
every one of them as we would want them to do unto
us. To accord to them the
same rights, freedoms and liberties as we want
them to accord to us – the
bill of rights.
We the people then brought
in a third party, government –the super numeral
public servant – to
supervise the implementation of this social contract
between the citizens
and to perform other public duties like build roads and
schools.
We
the people concede to government only such powers and authority we deem
necessary for it to perform its public functions for the common good. The
bulk of the constitution spells out the system of government, the limits of
its powers, the checks and balances, etc.
In a democracy the people
retain the overall power over government and the
ultimate expression of this
power is that the people elect, in periodic free
and fair elections, who
will govern.
Mugabe and his cronies have amended, undermined and violated
the word and
spirit of the Lancaster House Constitution and usurped the
people’s power.
What we have in Zimbabwe is a de facto Zanu PF dictatorship.
So instead of
the regime serving us the public; it has been us the people
who have been
the servants, indeed slaves, to the tyrant and his
cronies.
Mugabe and his cronies own farms, houses, mines, companies; they
have taken
away our all rights, freedoms, our human dignities and hope; etc.
All they
have ever done is take, take, take.
If evolution was not
such a slow process, then Mugabe’s taking hand would
have become so big and
powerful after all these years of taking this, taking
that, take, take; he
would now resemble a jumping frog with three hind legs.
If this COPAC
constitution is worth a candle then it must end this Mugabe
dictatorship and
restore all the people’s rights, including the right to
free and fair
elections, free of violence.
This COPAC constitution talks of, “Everyone
has the right to life!” A
standard statement uplifted from any constitution;
on its own it is but
empty words to please the fools.
But if one was
to add a clause like: All public unrest and deaths other than
by natural
causes will be subject to a full independent and public judiciary
inquiry.
All those found guilty will serve a minimum and mandatory jail term
of five
years for assault and thirty years for murder with no possibility of
a
presidential pardon! Hah, even the nut case Chipangano thugs will sit up
and
listen.
It is wilfully inadequate to saying the country’s security sector
must act
“in an none partisan manner” which is all that COPAC
says.
The umbilical cord tying Mugabe to these key state organs must be
cut if
these institutions are to play their part in providing the checks and
balances of power demanded of them in a functioning and healthy democracy.
These are the reforms agreed in the GPA, the reforms Mugabe has stubbornly
refused to implement.
Implement the reforms and you will be
dismantling the dictatorship brick by
brick, which is why Mugabe has
refused. This COPAC constitution was written
knowing full well that reforms
will not be implemented and therefore the
dictatorship was not to be
dismantled, the very thing it was meant to do. So
clearly this COPAC
constitution is rubbish.
When PM Tsvangirai says the COPAC constitution
was a “compromise”; what he
means is Mugabe refused to implement the reforms
necessary to restore our
basic rights and the MDC simply capitulated.
“Pamareforms Mugabe akamba
zvachose; akatsvika madziro!”
Compromise!
It was and still is not for Tsvangirai to bargain our most basic
and
cherished rights, including our right to life itself, as if these rights
were mangoes for him to dispose of as he pleased! And by the same token; it
was and still is not for Mugabe to grant and deny these basic rights as if
they were sweets being given out to children!
So having failed to
produce a constitution to guarantee us our rights PM
Tsvangirai now has to
rely on Mugabe to keep his word and keep the peace.
Only an idiot would
trust Mugabe to keep his promise and, worse still, would
hang the whole
nation’s future on that spider’s thread!
The nation must be ruled by law
and not by the whim of a dictator! Indeed
that is exactly what this whole
exercise is about; to write the supreme law
of the land, the constitution.
If there is a job worth doing right, this is
it. We can fudge it and adopt
this COPAC rubbish but we will pay a heavy
price for it!
Whether or
not COPAC will stop the violence is the big issue over which this
referendum
will be decided. If you believe the violence will not happen then
vote yes!
If, like me, you know the violence will happen if elections go
ahead without
the reforms, then vote no.
Why has PM Tsvangirai and the MDC endorsed
this COPAC constitution if it is
rubbish? That we can discuss some other
day.
Good night!
Emmanuel Ndlovu
Increasing cross border communication, trade and
educational exchanges
between different parts of the world have dictated
that world citizens
everywhere strive for competency in languages of wider
communication such as
English. The fate of a language is closely linked to
political power
dynamics. However, the purpose of this article is not to
engage on a
pedagogy of politics and power but on how government can promote
and protect
demographically weak languages through pro-active policies in
order for them
to survive and thrive. The interconnectedness and diversity
of the world,
travelling and world tourism, trade, marriage, sport and
education have
dictated that individuals can no longer afford to think of
themselves and
others in the primitive lenses of superiority and
inferiority. Poor language
policy and planning has imbued linguistic
minorities with ingredients for
self destruction. Disingenuous and
disintegrative policies have condemned
indigenous minority languages to the
traditional cultural domain of
anthology, song, theatre and rainmaking
ceremonies.
The Sustainable Development in a Diverse World (SUS.DIV)
Research Unit
estimates that there are between 5,000 and 7,000 different
languages spoken
across the world today. Although it is difficult to
ascertain the exact
number of languages because of the distorted distinction
between languages
and dialects, language constitutes a vital cultural
attribute used not only
for communication but in expressing the way
individuals locate themselves in
relationship to others, the powers they
accord to themselves and the powers
they stipulate to others. A total of 516
languages are considered to be
nearing extinction because they are spoken by
just a few elderly people.
Africa alone has 46 severely endangered languages
which are in the peril of
phasing out.
As the world celebrates the
International Mother Language Day today on the
21st of February 2013, it is
important to reflect on the importance of
language and understand why it
matters more as a form of identity than a
medium of communication. Language
is a cultural asset. It is much more than
a structured organization of
consonants, vowels, phonemes and syllables to
formulate norms and verbs in
order to convey meaning. Language is certainly
much more than what is
signified by words. As a political tool, language is
often used to
homogenize or distinguish groups of individuals in ways that
serve those in
control of society. The diversity of languages in the world
and the
different vitalities that languages command has important
implications for
individuals and societies at large. The disappearance and
scarcity of
unwritten and undocumented languages mean that humanity is
losing not only a
cultural wealth but also important ancestral knowledge
embedded in
indigenous languages. Essentially, people use language to
indicate social,
historical and cultural allegiances, that is, which groups
they belong to
and which groups they do not belong to.
It is the duty of government to
come up with legislative policies that
protect and preserve indigenous
languages. Archaic relationships between
policy and planning have however
rendered many language policies
ineffective. Policies that recommend the use
of minority languages in
education such as Kalanga, Sotho, Nambia and Venda,
amongst others are
usually not accompanied by sufficient safeguards to
reinforce them. The
marginalization of a language is the marginalization of
a people. Minority
communities have over the daunting years faced an
enduring challenge
marginalization and underdevelopment which has been
characterized by a
systematic relegation of minority languages to cultural
domains. As such,
their history is nothing other than the history of
marginalization and
subordination to a centralized thinking process that
alienates them from the
day-to-day decision making processes. While in the
majority of instances
this has been happening with the sad and silent
approval of the native
speakers of minority languages, such disintegrative
language policies
contribute to a linguistic genocide. This has ensured the
entrenchment of
inter-ethnic polarization and massively strengthened the
political
domination of ethno-nationalist political groups in the
decision-making
processes.
Well-planned and implementable language
policies are needed to bolster the
ongoing efforts of speaker communities to
maintain or revitalize their
mother languages and pass them on to younger
generations. There is need to
elevate the status of previously unrecognized
or unsupported minority
languages such as Kalanga, Ndau, Manyika and
Shangani amongst others and
extend its use to new domains. Even bilingual
road signs, advertisements and
other public notices can go a long way in
elevating the status of minority
languages. On the other hand, being a
member of a minority encourages
diversity as one must learn to thrive
through becoming conversant in
languages spoken by the majority. Culture
clashes have ensured in many cases
where primary school children have been
taught in languages foreign to them
which they cannot comprehend a feature
which has contributed to poor and
deteriorating education standards
countrywide. The government needs to
support innovations to document and
allow for the official use of minority
languages and for children to learn
them in schools and colleges. There is
need for a power balance in the
linguistic market place to ensure that all
citizens become engaged
pro-active partners in a governing and development
process.
Emmanuel
Ndlovu is the Advocacy and Programmes Manager for the Bulawayo
Progressive
Residents Association. He writes in his individual capacity.
Contact him: umanu.ndlovu@gmail.com