Armed men and women reportedly broke into the
Masvingo offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network early Thursday
morning and stole equipment, including a computer, two top drawers from the
group’s field officer’s desk with all the contents, plus 800 T-shirts. ZESN
said this is the second time this week the Masvingo office has been targeted
by unidentified assailants.
Several civil society organizations have
come under fire in recent weeks, with the election monitoring group being
the latest target.
Earlier this week, police raided ZESN’s head office in
Harare saying they were looking for subversive material, gadgets or
recordings and illegal immigrants, on the same day the Masvingo office had
been broken into for the first time.
But attacks on civil society
reached new heights when police said that communications gadget, allegedly
confiscated from the offices of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) (including
Eton Microlink radios) were being used for espionage.
The radios
named by the police are convenient, inexpensive, solar powered radios often
favoured by campers in North America and by some people in Zimbabwe’s rural
areas where electricity is in short supply. These cheap radios are mainly
used to listen to external radio stations, offering alternative views, via
medium wave and shortwave.
These Eton Microlink radios are among the
‘specially designed radios’ that were banned by the police on Tuesday, who
claimed they will be used to communicate hate speech ahead of polls
scheduled for this year.
Police spokesperson Charity Charamba said Huawei
Ascend Y100 cellphones fitted with Geographical Positioning System (GPS) and
other ‘subversive material and documents’ were also confiscated during a
raid of the ZPP offices last week, and accused the organization of
distributing some of these gadgets in rural areas.
The spokesman is
quoted in the state controlled Herald newspaper saying that ZPP is an
unregistered organization whose activities were a threat to national
security.
The NGO is run by Jestina Mukoko, who was abducted in December
2008, tortured and spent four months in police custody after she was accused
of recruiting people for military training to try to overthrow the
government. The case was later thrown out by the Supreme Court.
The
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said there is a sustained and escalating
assault on NGO’s involved in civic education, human rights monitoring,
public outreach and service provision – all of which are lawful activities.
They said the methods of attack include character assassination through the
partisan and state-controlled media and the disruption of these lawful
activities.
In a statement issued Thursday the rights body said it is
holding all three political parties in the coalition government responsible
for the attacks on civil society organizations.
“There has been a
resounding silence by the politicians who appear to be more preoccupied with
their electoral campaigns and power retention at the expense of undertakings
laid out clearly in the Global Political Agreement – undertakings which
continue to be broken, discarded and arrogantly ignored.
“Responsibility
for the current crackdown lies squarely and fully on the three political
parties that form the inclusive government. They have been either powerless
to stop the attacks, directly or indirectly involved in the coordination and
implementation of the attacks, or simply unconcerned with the challenges
faced by those outside their ivory towers.”
Crisis Coalition director
McDonald Lewanika told SW Radio Africa that what is happening in Zimbabwe
has nothing to do with crimes being committed but is the criminalization of
organizations, to stop them from doing their work.
He said NGOs have
started engaging the police about this and have arranged meetings with the
political principles in order to have their concerns addressed.
“If
they are not addressed we will go to the SADC facilitator (President Jacob
Zuma) and impress upon him that what is happening does not bode well for the
holding of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe and that the regional body
and the African needs to do something,” Lewanika warned.
He said the
civic groups have also started thinking about street protests if the police
continue with their onslaught on civic organisations.
Lewanika said it is
unfortunate that the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who they met last
week, has not been able to ‘stop this abuse’ by the police who are
answerable to the inclusive government.
Commentators like Rejoice Ngwenya
have said street protests and petitions to Zuma should have begun years ago.
ZIMBABWE Peace Project led by
Jestina Mukoko has been fingered in a suspected espionage case after police
confiscated documents and communication devices it was distributing to its
recruits countrywide. Police found the
unregistered organisation with
communication gadgetry that includes Eton Microlink radios and Huawei Ascend
Y100 cellphones fitted with Geographical Positioning System (GPS) reportedly
to be used in the run-up to the elections and the actual poll. Under the
secret project, political parties are identified with codes.
Zanu-PF’s
code is 3, MDC-T 8, Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn 7, Zapu 10, Zapu Federal 19, MDC-N
2, MDC Mutambara 5, MDC 99 23, Mthwakazi 14, Puma 13 and non-political
parties, MKS 211.
It is believed the data collected would be forwarded to
NGOs and Western governments who would in turn use it to discredit the next
elections if won by President Mugabe.
The recruits use a personalised
and encrypted password, Tendai, and the test run was actually going on in
urban and rural areas. The systems make it easy to communicate, undetected by
security forces, quick information like a secret meeting or gathering,
through the password, Tendai.
For example, “Tendai meeting at Africa
Unity Square, 12 noon, 3.” That could mean go and monitor a Zanu-PF meeting
at Africa Unity Square. Police yesterday said they were now investigating the
organisation.
According to police, a recent search at ZPP’s offices at
Number 17425 Flanagan Drive in Hillside, Harare, resulted in the recovery of
subversive material, documents and communication gadgets.
These are
suspected to have been imported illegally, with the help of hostile Western
donor organisations and NGOs. Some of the gadgets include Eton Microlink
radios, event forms, Huawei Ascend Y100 cellphones and floppy diskettes
containing hate speech. Police believe that some registered NGOs were also
behind the distribution of the gadgets in rural areas.
ZPP is led by
Ms Mukoko, who was once arrested a few years ago for being involved in
activities deemed to be detrimental to the State. She was freed by the
Supreme Court on the basis of some constitutional breaches.
Chief
police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba told journalists
that ZPP was unregistered and its activities were a threat to State
security.
“ZRP has it on good authority that certain entities like the
Zimbabwe Peace Project purport to be engaged in humanitarian work as an NGO
whereas they are an illegal conduit to the regime change agenda by carrying
out covert political activities tantamount to causing a threat to State
security and violating the country’s laws,” she said.
Asst Comm
Charamba said investigations carried out after the searches at the ZPP
offices revealed that the organisation was employing dirty tactics by
deploying “field monitors’’ to various rural areas.
Once in such
areas, the monitors ask desperate youths to fill in the event forms to
allege harassment, intimidation, assault, threats by the Central
Intelligence Organisation, police, war veterans, army and
militia.
Asst Comm Charamba said ZPP had come up with codes for political
parties, incidents, violations and denials which they fill in on the event
forms. She said the codes would be filled in on the forms instead of writing
the names of the political parties.
The forms would also contain a
summary of what was happening at any political gathering of any
party. ZPP mostly targeted Zanu-PF, with most of the information filled on
the forms having been found to be false, police said. “Surprisingly, no
such political incidents as described in the event forms would have taken
place,” said Asst Comm Charamba.
“The information being coded is highly
sensitive and prejudicial to State security and is intended for their
handlers who are outside the country. “Further to that, Zimbabwe Peace
Project is operating illegally as a non-governmental organisation and is not
even registered under the Private and Voluntary Organisations
Act.”
Asst Comm Charamba urged people in both rural and urban areas to be
wary of strangers who masquerade as NGOs and entice them with money to
divulge negative and false information about the country. She said such
cases should be reported to the police.
“We have a constitutional
obligation as a police force to maintain law and order and our raids are not
an onslaught on civil society, but we act on information to unearth criminal
activities,” she said.
Asst Comm Charamba said certain NGOs were accusing
the police of being partisan and selectively applying the law when they were
the ones abandoning their humanitarian mandate to engage in political
activities to the detriment of State security and the country’s
stability.
“The ZRP promises to remain fair and firm in the discharge of
our duties and protecting the interests of law and order at all cost,” she
said. Police recently confiscated the communication devices which they said
were being distributed by non-governmental organisations countrywide with
the aid of some political parties.
Although police could not give
figures, sources said hundreds of such devices, including specially designed
radios, have been confiscated, especially in the rural areas.
It is
illegal for anyone to possess or operate signal transmission equipment other
than in accordance with a licence issued by either the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe or Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority
of Zimbabwe.
Police investigations have also revealed that there were
groups of between 40 and 50 people who were gathering at night in various
parts of the country for political activities.
President Mugabe
recently said voting in the referendum on the draft Constitution would be
conducted over one day on March 16, with polling stations opening at 7am and
closing at 7pm.
The proclamation by President Mugabe was contained in the
Government Gazette which validated the referendum date through Statutory
Instrument 19 of 2013. The referendum would pave way for the much awaited
harmonised elections which would end the inclusive Government established in
2009.
Armed detectives on Wednesday stormed the home
of the MDC-T parliamentarian for Luveve, Reginald Moyo, in search of
military equipment and communication devices.
Moyo was away in Harare
on parliament business when the seven armed officers pounced, although his
wife and children were home.
He said: “Seven armed police detectives from
Bulawayo Central’s Law and Order section raided my home in Luveve
suburb.
“I was not at home, but they told my wife that there were looking
for military equipment and communication devices, including
radios.
“They harassed my wife and kids, asking them unnecessary
questions, but they didn’t find anything.”
The raid on Wednesday
follows a police ban on ‘specially designed radios’ that are ‘not compatible
with state owned stations’.
Announcing the ban at a press conference on
Tuesday, police spokesperson Charity Charamba claimed the devices,
particularly SW and AM radios, would be used to communicate hate speech
ahead of polls.
Charamba warned that those who received the radios would
be arrested together with organisations which distribute them.
Moyo
told SW Radio Africa that the officers indicated they would be returning,
and almost confiscated a book by the late Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo which they
deemed ‘subversive’.
Surprisingly, the police did not take away the three
shortwave radio receivers that were at Moyo’s house.
Moyo said the
raid appeared to be part of a well-designed plot by ZANU PF to use the
partisan police force to crack down on civil society and opposition party
supporters, ahead of the referendum and elections scheduled for this
year.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo said he
was not aware of the incident and would not comment.
Meanwhile the
home of former Gwanda North MDC legislator Thandeko Zinti Mkandla was on
Saturday also raided by six officers from Gwanda police station looking for
subversive material.
Mkandla told us that the officers said they were
acting on intelligence that he possessed smuggled electrical goods,
including televisions and radio receivers.
Mkandla, who was at home
at the time, said the officers did not find anything and left
empty-handed.
“This is nothing short of political harassment, a strategy
by ZANU PF to frustrate those individuals that they see as a threat in the
forthcoming elections,” Mkandla said.
In the past week there has been
a steady rise in the number of human rights activists and MDC members being
arrested or harassed by security forces, as reported by this
station.
On Tuesday police ransacked the Harare and Masvingo offices of
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), the country’s biggest independent
elections watchdog group, looking for the same radios. ZESN’s Masvingo
offices were again raided Thursday by as yet to be identified
individuals.
The massive crackdown is likely to affect rural people most
of whom rely on radios to listen to popular short wave stations such as
Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa.
MDC leader Welshman Ncube says that the appointment
of new heads for the election and human rights commissions were illegal and
berated premier Morgan Tsvangirai for endorsing individuals with strong Zanu
PF ties to the key posts.
Jacob Mudenda, a former governor and Zanu
PF provincial chairman was this week named the new head of the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Commission while Supreme Court judge, Rita Makarau was tapped
to head the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission until December.
Makarau’s
appointment gives her charge of next month’s constitutional referendum as
well as elections to choose a substantive government expected later in the
year.
MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said the
appointments were agreed at a GPA party leaders’ meeting held Monday with
President Robert Mugabe and deputy premier Arthur Mutambara.
But
Ncube, whose party has long complained about his exclusion from the
meetings, said it was “incomprehensible” Tsvangirai had endorsed the
appointment of individuals with known Zanu PF links to the key
positions.
“With these two purported appointments Zanu PF must be
laughing all the way to the Bank,” Ncube said in a statement
Wednesday. “Justice Makarau is no doubt a fine lawyer, but there is no
Zimbabwean who does not know her very close links to Zanu PF before she
became a judge and during her previous role with past election bodies in the
country.
“Equally, (most Zimbabweans are aware of) just how high Jacob
Mudenda was in the Zanu PF hierarchy in his past political
life.”
Ncube said by agreeing to the appointments, Tsvangirai had “taken
the democratic struggle to square one”. “That Tsvangirai accepted these
appointments is not only incomprehensible but his subsequent public defense
of these purported appointments is so irrational in its defiance of logic
and common sense that it is difficult, if not altogether impossible to
believe that he applied his mind to the implications of the appointments,”
he said.
Democracy set-back “Those in his party who worked so
tirelessly together with some of us for the creation of the two institutions
through the Global Political Agreement and Amendment No. 19 to the
Constitution pending the making of a new national constitution must be as
distressed as I am by the appointments.
“The MDCT members who lost
their lives at the hands of Zanu PF thugs and state agents during the (2008)
Presidential election runoff in circumstances in which the then Electoral
Commission was responsible for much of the chaos must surely be turning in
their graves.”
Ncube insists that both appointments were illegal and
demonstrated an “unacceptable cavalier attitude towards legality and
outright disrespect of other institutions of government.”
Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Makarau’s temporary appointment would be
confirmed once Mugabe had completed consultations with the Judicial Services
Commission and Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders Committee.
But
Ncube said the consultations should have been done prior to the appointments
adding that there was no provision for a temporary electoral commission head
under the constitution.
“With regard to the purported appointment of
Justice Makarau … neither the constitution nor the Electoral Act make any
provision for the appointment of an acting of temporary or interim
chairperson by the President and the Prime Minister,” Ncube
said.
“The Electoral Act provides that any vacancy in the membership of
the ZEC must be filled by the President in accordance with the provisions of
the Constitution which in turn require that a vacancy in the position of
Chairperson be filled by the President after consultation with the Judicial
Service Commission and the Standing Rules and Orders Committee of
Parliament.
“In short, there is nowhere in the law that provision is
made for the appointment of a temporary chair pending the regularisation of
a permanent appointment. Thus on this additional basis the purported
appointment of Justice Makarau is illegal.”
Ncube said his party
would “oppose both appointments whenever they will be presented to the
Committee on Standing Rules and Orders. We hope that by then the MDCT will
have regained in moral conscience”.
HARARE – Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has rejected President Robert Mugabe’s plan to appoint the new
Zimbabwe Election Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice Rita Makarau in an
acting capacity.
Makarau takes over the Zec position that was left
vacant after the retirement of Namibia-based High Court judge Simpson
Mutambanengwe.
Mugabe’s top negotiator Patrick Chinamasa, the minister of
Justice and Legal Affairs was quoted as saying Makarau will be Zec
chairperson in an acting capacity until December.
But Tsvangirai says
appointing a commissioner to head an important body such as Zec in an acting
capacity trivialises the critical role of conducting elections. Zec is the
body that is mandated with conducting elections in Zimbabwe.
Alex
Magaisa, Tsvangirai’s advisor told the Daily News yesterday that principals
to the coalition government, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara had agreed to the appointment of the highly-respected
Supreme Court judge in a full time capacity.
“The principals reached an
agreement on the candidate subject to the Constitution procedures which
include consulting the Judiciary Services Commission and the parliamentary
Committee on Standing Rules and Orders,” Magaisa said.
“The
expectation is that the candidate should hold the position on a full time
basis and serve the full five-year term. It is important that the position
be held on a full time basis as a sign of commitment to Zec and the onerous
task that comes with that position,” Magaisa said.
“The person in a part
time position cannot approach the onerous position at Zec in the same way
the person who holds the position on a full time basis
does.”
Managerially, Magaisa said it would be a difficult position
for an acting chairperson to command commissioners who have been appointed
on a full time basis. Daily News
HARARE – Rita Makarau and Jacob Mudenda have not yet been
appointed as Electoral and Human Rights commissioners as the appointment
process requires consultations which have not yet taken
place.
Zanu PF sympathisers Jacob Mudenda and Rita Makarau The
announcement by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that he and President
Robert Mugabe had agreed on the choice of the two Zanu (PF) supporters was
met with an outcry from members of the MDC and civil society.
Newsday
quoted Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s adviser, Alex Magaisa, saying President
Mugabe and President Tsvangorai had merely came up with names of politically
acceptable people to fill the vacant posts.
“What happened this week is
not appointing, it is a political agreement between principals, but this is
subject to procedural requirements set in the Constitution,” he
said
Commissioners are appointed by the President from a list of nominees
supplied by the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders and for
the Chairperson there is an extra requirement that the President must
consult with the Judicial Service Commission.
Both proposed people
are seen as Zanu (PF) loyalists with Mudenda seen as not just a loyalist but
a hardliner who almost scuttled the Constitution-making process when he
conived with Goodwills Masimirembwa to attempt to ill-advise Zanu PF Copac
chairman Paul Mangwana to stop drafters from continuing drafting the
constitution.
They wrote a memorandum to him critiquing the first four
chapters that had been drafted and impugning the mandate of the drafters,
and they published the critique in The Herald.
Makarawu was a Zanu
(PF) MP before being appointed to the bench.
Pedzisai Ruhanya, of the
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute said Mudenda was the worst choice ever, and an
insult to the Zimbabweans who were butchered by Zanu (PF) when Mudenda was
Matabeleland North Governor during the Gukurahundi massacres.
He also
lost his government post after being fingered in the Willowgate scandal
where top Zanu PF officials were implicated in the illegal resale of
vehicles.
Macdonald Lewanika, the director of Crisis Coalition in
Zimbabwe, also described Mudenda’s choice as a “sad development” as his
hands were not clean and he was not a fair minded person.
But the
strongest criticism came from Welshman Ncube of the splinter MDC party, who
is also disputing his exclusion from the consultations as he consideres
himself a principal by virtue of being the President of the third party in
government.
He is recognised by SADC as a principal, but Robert Mugabe
has refused to recognise him as such, choosing instead to recognise Arthur
Mutambara who signed the Global Political Agreement before he was deposed
from the leadership of the party.
Ncube said his party would
challenge the appointments because it was not consulted, and that President
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai could not validly appoint
a commission chair.
“According to the Constitution, the President
appoints the ZHRC chairperson after consultations with the Judiciary Service
Commission (JSC) and the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and
Orders.
“As far as Mudenda’s appointment is concerned, we have not been
consulted and in the spirit of the Global Political Agreement, we will
oppose the appointment until it comes to the Standing Rules and Orders
Committee.”
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.
Part of our
story in 2009 read:
Source fingered Ed Kadzombe, Chairman of the Wildlife
Advisory Council and owner of EK Safaris, as one of those helping the
dictatorship. He has representatives on the west coast in the US including a
brother in California called Washington Kadzombe, who runs a micro finance
scheme.
He is allegedly attached to a lawyer called Leo Grizzaffi of
Torrance, California, who represents EK Safaris in the US. Grizzaffi is a
powerful contact as he is said to be a member of the biggest pro-weapons
lobby group in the US — the National Rifle Association. The American has an
open market in terms of recruiting hunters for Zimbabwe because of the
numbers of hunters in this association.
The source said this clearly
shows Kadzombe has an open playing field in terms of how and where he can
hunt because of his position. Kadzombe has many associates in Zanu PF,
including Jacob Mudenda, the former provincial chairman of Matabeleland
North who was recently denied a visa to attend a high-profile safari trade
fair in Nevada.
Other big names mentioned in the hunting scam are former
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, former Tourism Minister Francis Nhema,
Industry and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo and
high ranking army officials like General Constantine Chiwenga and General
Zvinavashe.
It is alleged that they invite hunters to Zimbabwe,
especially from the USA. They then pay a sub-economic level of money to the
local population where the animals are hunted and reap a huge amount of
money themselves.
Source said some hunters in the US have no idea that
they are being targeted by safari operators with links to the Mugabe regime.
But the money they pay is invested into legitimate businesses in the USA or
around the world and is effectively laundered. It’s then drip fed back into
the pockets of the real handlers in Zimbabwe.
This money rarely finds
its way to Zimbabwe as it is kept in private bank accounts around the world.
It’s also difficult to trace because the accounts are kept in names of third
parties. ChangeZimbabwe
On February the 21st President Robert Gabriel Mugabe
celebrates his 89th birthday. For 33 of those years he has been in total
control of the hopes and aspirations of Zimbabweans. It is has been claimed
by himself and others, including senior clerics in Zimbabwe, that he was
anointed by God.
This birthday week the president is quoted in the state
Herald newspaper saying God has charged him to serve Zimbabwe and he has
pledged to carry on the “divine task” without backtracking.
Critics
say if this is the case then Almighty God has been punishing the people of
Zimbabwe severely.
Zimbabwe has 90% unemployment, over 60% have no food,
water, electricity or medicine. Is this really God’s plan for the people of
Zimbabwe?
The president received 89 cows, one for each year for his life,
from Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono. His followers took out a 16 page
supplement in the state controlled Herald newspaper, praising him and saying
he is “still going strong and is mentally and physically as fit as ever,
ripening with each passing day like good old wine.”
But a recent
survey by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, which suggests that Mugabe’s
ZANU PF party is likely to win the forthcoming general elections, also
revealed that most Zimbabweans interviewed were living in abject poverty,
with Matabeleland North standing out as the area most hit by starvation,
with 91% of the people saying they ‘sometimes’ or ‘always’ lacked enough
food to eat.
ZANU PF has blamed the economic collapse in the country on
sanctions imposed by western countries, but critics say Mugabe’s violent
land reform program, the catastrophic indigenisation plans, plus rampant
corruption are the main culprits.
Despite this some of the birthday
tributes on social media forums read:
“Long live Cde. Mugabe. You are an
Africa Hero and nobody’s puppet.”
“I wish President Mugabe well, many
more years and pray that god grants him many years to account for all his
omissions and commissions.”
Meanwhile, the UK based Zimbabwe Vigil said
it plans to celebrate the president’s birthday by petitioning South African
President Jacob Zuma, through the SA High Commission in London, insisting on
the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement reforms ahead of
the elections.
Robert Mugabe said he had a "divine task" to lead Zimbabwe,
shrugging off concerns about his health and fitness for office as he
prepares for what could be one the closest election battles since he came to
power in 1980.
Few Zimbabweans are ruling out victory for the 89-year-old
Mugabe even though his country, once an African success story, is in a
decade-long economic slump worsened by Western sanctions and more than four
fifths of the population is unemployed.
Since Mugabe was forced to
share power with his chief political rival after a disputed election in
2008, the economy has shown tentative signs of recovery.
Rampant
inflation has calmed, the mining sector is buoyant and agriculture is
picking up after turmoil caused by the seizure of farms from their white
owners under Mugabe's policy of black empowerment.
Mugabe, Africa's
oldest president, maintains that Zimbabwe's difficulties stem from a Western
plot to re-colonise it, a view that strikes a chord with his supporters, who
see the sanctions as punishment for a justified campaign to wrest their
country's wealth from the hands of foreign corporations and the white
minority.
To his critics, Mugabe's land seizures and a drive to force
foreign-owned firms to sell majority shareholding to locals has delayed
economic recovery by discouraging foreign investment.
They say
Mugabe, long admired as a liberation hero and pragmatic leader, has turned
Zimbabwe into a basket case and squandered national goodwill by clinging
onto power through ballot box rigging and intimidation.
The champion of
African popular rule has looked increasingly to God to bolster his claim to
leadership.
Addressing his staff at a party they hosted for him on the
eve of his 89th birthday, Mugabe was serenaded by one of the country's
leading gospel singers and spoke of the solitude he has felt since many of
his relatives and independence-era comrades died.
"Why is it that all
my friends are gone and my relatives are gone and I continue to linger on?
Then I say to myself, well, it's not my choice, its God's choice," Mugabe
said at the party late on Wednesday, which was attended by state
media.
"This is a task the Lord might have wanted me to fulfil among my
people...," he said. "I read it as a bidding of God... The bidding says you
move forward ever."
TIGHT RACE?
Mugabe says he wants to
continue the liberation struggle and consolidate black economic
empowerment.
More than 4,000 out of an original 4,500 white-owned farms
have been seized since 2000 under a programme he says is aimed at correcting
land ownership imbalances created by colonialism.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party has endorsed his candidacy for the presidential elections, which he
and his arch-rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have agreed to hold
around July.
"I hear a lot of people talking about a tight race, but with
his record I just don't see how Mugabe can win a free and fair election,"
said 28-year-old Charles Simukai, who was selling fruit on the streets of
the capital Harare.
He said Mugabe should have retired from politics
to play an advisory role as a senior statesman.
Tsvangirai says
ZANU-PF rigged and robbed him of victory in three major violence-marred
polls since 2000.
Many Zimbabweans say the fragile power-sharing
government that has held together since 2008 has helped to make ZANU-PF less
autocratic.
However, Mugabe's opponents say they expect ZANU-PF's
campaign to repeat underhand tactics used to secure past election wins,
deploying war veterans and youth militia to intimidate
voters.
Supporters of Tsvangirai say he enjoys the support of an army of
new young voters who might be less intimidated by such methods.
"The
general consensus is that you need a free and fair election for a real
democratic outcome ... but there is no consensus that Zimbabwe will get
that," said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the
University of Zimbabwe.
QUESTIONS OVER HEALTH
Mugabe has spent
the last two days reorganising the country's electoral commission and
discussing funding for his campaign.
Some officials in ZANU-PF's
politburo worry privately that he is taking risks with his health and want
him to hand over the reins to a younger figure.
But nobody has openly
challenged Mugabe - the result, to some, of a generous patronage system that
rewards loyalty and his long-honed skills in outwitting potential
rivals.
Mugabe appears fit and alert in public, but he is widely believed
to suffer from ill health that could make it hard to cope with the pressures
of the campaign trail.
A June 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable released by
WikiLeaks said Mugabe had prostate cancer that had spread to other organs
and was. According to the cable, he was apparently urged by his physician to
step down in 2008. [ID: NL5E7K50UP]
But ZANU-PF appears to have
accepted that Mugabe has manoeuvred himself into a position where he ends up
president for life, a position that opponents say he wants as security
against possible prosecution for rights abuses.
"What we have ... is a
president celebrating his 89th birthday while planning on how he can
continue in power after so many years in office. That is not normal," said
professor Masunungure.
Shangani, February 20, 2013--Twelve
people died in a accident near Shangani business centre on Wednesday after a
bus on its way to Bulawayo from Gweru was side swept by a truck. Speaking
to Radio VOP on Wednesday, Midlands province police spokesperson Assistant
Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko said:
“The driver of a Zebulon bus lost
control after it was side swept by a truck which was going the opposite
direction. Ten people died on the spot while two died on their way to
hospital. The injured were taken to United Bulawayo Hospital and Mpilo in
Bulawayo."
Zimbabwe's roads are in a state of disrepair with many
littered with dangerous potholes as result of years of neglect and increased
volume of traffic.
During the last 2012 December festive season more
than 200 people were killed in road accident on the country’s roads. Police
have since declared the season as the deadliest in the nation's traffic
history. During the 2011 Christmas period 147 people died.
But police
say human error, more than anything, is responsible for most car
accidents.
According to the ministry of transport, 30 percent of the
country’s roads require rehabilitation, while the remainder needs periodic
maintenance.
Zimbabwe introduced tollgates in August 2009 as a way of
mobilising resources for the rehabilitation and maintenance of the country’s
road network.
According to official government estimates, the
tollgates are raising $350 000 per week.
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on Tuesday met the Zanu (PF)
Secretary for Information and Publicity, Rugare Gumbo, to raise their
concerns on the continued persecution of civic society organisations ahead
of elections scheduled for this year.
The meeting was held at the
Zanu (PF) Headquarters in Harare.
Recently, several civic society
organisations have fallen victim to arrests and police raids in a move that
has been seen as an attempt to silence non-governmental organisations ahead
of elections.
These CSOs include ZimRights, Counselling Services Unit,
Zimbabwe Election Support Network and the Zimbabwe Peace Project.
The
CiZC delegation comprised its Advocacy Committee Chairperson and Combined
Harare Residents Association Director, Mfundo Mlilo, Programmes Manager,
Nixon Nyikadzino and Advocacy and Networking Officer, Memory Kadau.
CiZC
is a conglomeration of about 350 non-governmental organisations formed in
2001 in response to the multi-faceted crisis in Zimbabwe.
“The three
member delegation ranked a flag on the unrelenting clampdown on CSOs by the
government and highlighted repercussions on civil society’s critical work in
preparation for the upcoming referendum and elections.
“The delegation
also extended a hand to Zanu (PF) to continue promoting thought leadership
through participating at CIZC’s platforms,” reads a report by
Crisis.
The delegation implored Gumbo to ensure their supporters desisted
from violence in the forthcoming harmonised elections.
“One the
issues raised included the political party’s (Zanu PF’s) responsibility to
reign in its supporters so that Zimbabwe can hold a peaceful election among
other issues. Responding to the issues raised by the delegation, Gumbo
promised to raise these issues with the other Zanu (PF) leaders,” said
Crisis.
It added that Gumbo acknowledged to the delegation the need for
mutual engagement and information sharing between civil society and the
party.
The report quoted Gumbo as saying: “I talk to everyone and believe
critical engagement is necessary because we are all Zimbabweans. We should
tolerate each other.”
The report however said Gumbo revealed his
reservations with civil society and its work.
According to the
report, Gumbo said: “What is the interest of these people that are funding
you? Some-times we listen to the issues that you will be saying and think
they are all about regime change, the “Mugabe and Zanu (PF)must go” talk. So
we are then forced to defend ourselves.”
Speaking on the outcome of the
meeting, Mlilo expressed confidence the engagement with Zanu (PF) would help
establish “door of continuous engagement” although he expressed skepticism
over the party’s sincerity.
“We are however not sure of their sincerity
on engagement with CSOs, only time will tell. Our message is clear. These
unwarranted attacks of civil society should stop,” said
Mlilo.
Nyikadzino said: “It was a productive meeting where we exchanged
notes with Honourable Gumbo. It was a courtesy call and because of the
nature of the meeting, we had limited space to air our views but we managed
to clarify the work and mandate of CSOs,” said Nyikadzino.
Plans by the leader of the notorious Chipangano youth gang to run
for a parliamentary seat in Harare have left residents shocked and angry,
because of the violence, intimidation and chaos he has led.
Jim
Kunaka, the ZANU PF youth chairmen for the capital, has stated his
intentions to run for the Kuwadzana parliamentary seat, currently held by
the MDC-T’s Nelson Chamisa. Kunaka has reportedly also helped in elbowing
out the MP for Mbare, to make way for a ZANU PF candidate.
Kunaka was
also recently fired from Harare City Council after beating up a colleague in
Mbare. Kunaka is said to have beaten up Gift Jembe, a municipal police
officer. But his actions have gone unpunished for years, and he is widely
considered untouchable.
His parliamentary ambitions have now shocked
residents, because of his involvement in Chipangano. The gang has ruled
Mbare for some time, using serious violence and intimidation to crack down
on perceived MDC supporters and to take over businesses.
Recently,
Kunaka was said to have led the ‘mandimbandimba’ gang that was running an
illegal patrol of bus ranks in the city. The gang was forcing omnibus
drivers to pay a daily ‘protection’ fee, and was raking in thousands of
dollars a week.
Police were eventually were called in to arrest these
illegal touts, but Kunaka was not included.
SW Radio Africa
correspondent Simon Muchemwa said the bus rank scam is just one of many
criminal acts Kunaka and his followers are known for.
“He runs illegal
businesses throughout Harare and his followers are ruthless and violent. He
is not a man that people would want in a parliamentary seat,” Muchemwa
said.
Harare Residents’ Trust Director, Precious Shumba, told SW Radio
Africa that Kunaka “is unsuitable for public office.”
“He has used
his position and his office to abuse people who are opposed. We are scared
he will bring more violence to the communities and to parliament. He has
been like a terror chief who has had the protection of the police,” Shumba
said.
He added: “He has released his violent thugs on us for years.
People are bitter and hurt that he has not been prosecuted for anything. In
the case that he should win, which is unlikely, it would spell disaster.”
Another controversial ZANU PF individual has been removed
from the European Union (EU) list of targeted sanctions against Robert
Mugabe’s regime.
The EU announced Monday, after a meeting in Brussels,
that 21 individuals would be de-listed, including the self styled Masvingo
‘war vet’ Shuvai Mahofa. Dubbed the ‘iron lady’ of the province, Mahofa used
to be the Deputy Minister of Youth in the ZANU PF run government and was the
MP for Gutu South.
She was most recently in the news for being among
a gang of ZANU PF linked officials illegally granted hunting licences and
stands in the Save Valley Conservancy last year. She is one of the ‘Masvingo
Initiative’ who last year caused chaos when they took over the Conservancy,
ignoring parliamentary warnings about the destruction their actions will
bring to the wildlife and tourism sectors.
European diplomats, along
with Conservancy officials, last year called on Zimbabwe’s cabinet to
intervene in the fight, warning that Zimbabwe faced losing European support
for the United Nations’ World Tourism congress, set to be hosted in Victoria
Falls in August this year. This concern however appears to have been
forgotten, with Europe now agreeing to have Mahofa removed from its Zim
‘sanctions’ list.
Mahofa is also known for her role in land invasions in
Masvingo, including the four year long battle for the Savuli Ranch, that she
successfully took over in 2011. She has also been implicated in a poaching
and a bush meat trading syndicate, reportedly run by her
brother.
Harrison Mudzuri, a Masvingo residents and provincial
spokesperson for the MDC-T, told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that Mahofa is
“a correct candidate to remain on that list of sanctions.”
“She is
known as the longest serving ZANU PF MP in Masvingo but, she is regarded as
the worst ever present politician here. She has done nothing meaningful as
an MP. There is a very negative attitude towards her and people are very
scared of her,” Mudzuri said.
He explained that Mahofa is best known for
her role in farm and other property invasions, particularly of the
conservancies in Chiredzi. But he also explained that there is superstitious
fear of her too.
“Her family is being haunted by avenging spirits, the
ngozi, after they killed someone in 2003 and they are being attacked by evil
spirits. She has been married to five husbands; all of them have passed
away. So people are now scared of her,” Mudzuri said.
He added: “She
is just as evil and bad as she was. Actually she is becoming worse and worse
since she was removed from parliament.”
WASHINGTON/MUTARE —
Zimbabwe’s Co-Home Affairs Ministers responded Wednesday to a nationwide ban
of communication devices by police saying they cannot confiscate radios
unless they can prove that the radios are illegal transmitters, not simply
receivers.
Minister Theresa Makone told VOA that she, along with
co-minister Kembo Mohadi, met with Police Commissioner General Augustine
Chihuri, and instructed him to halt confiscations.
The police
announced Wednsday they were banning the possession of what they called
“specially designed radios” and other unspecified communication devices in
the country, saying NGOs and civil society groups are planning to use the
devices to spread hate speech and influence the referendum and national
elections.
Speaking at a Harare news conference Wednesday, police
spokeswoman Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said the possession and
distribution of the devices in question was illegal.
Commissioner
Charamba said plans by political parties and NGOs to distribute the radios
was “intended to sow seeds of disharmony” among Zimbabweans as the country
embarks on two major voting events this year.
While the commissioner did
not specify what features the illegal devices have, critics said the radios
that have been confiscated are simple receivers.
That is, they cannot
send information. Only two-way radios can transmit
information.
Zimbabwean law forbids radio transmissions without a
license from the state media commission.
Others said the real targets
of the ban are international channels, like the Voice of America’s Studio 7,
that broadcast on shortwave.
In a country where most people still
rely on radio to get most of their news everyday, many Zimbabweans condemned
the police ban. Shortwave radios are especially critical in rural areas,
where FM and medium wave broadcasts may not reach.
Earlier this month
police confiscated more than 800 multiband radios from MDC-T Bindura South
MP Bednock Nyaude. On Wedneday police searched the home of lawmaker Reggie
Moyo of the MDC in Bulawayo, but came away empty handed.
Mr. Moyo
said police did not find any military radio receivers, but three civilian
receivers, which they did not confiscate. He labeled the incident as police
harassment.
Pro-democracy and media advocacy groups expressed criticism
over the police actions, which prompted co-home affairs ministers meeting
with the police commissioner to, in Ms. Makone’s words, “clarify the police
directive.”
Makone told VOA Studio 7 that a police officer may not
confiscate the private property of a Zimbabwean including a simple radio
receiver.
She said the police will need to return radio receivers
already confiscated.
Makone further noted that in a lengthy discussion
with Mohadi and Chihuri, they agreed the police commissioner would
commission engineers to verify the type of radios being used by members of
the public.
She stressed that if they are simple radios, they are to be
immediately released.
Nhlanhla Ngwenya, director of the Zimbabwe
chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, said the move by police
may be a signal that the security elements in the government plan to bar
Zimbabweans from their right to information as elections approach.
Souce:Xinhua Publish By Thomas
Whittle Updated 22/02/2013 9:50 am
HARARE, Feb. 21 — The U.S.
government has promised to improve its relations with Zimbabwe after the
African country holds free and fair elections later this year, an envoy said
on Thursday.
Zimbabwe will hold a Constitutional referendum on March 16
and general elections later this year. The elections are expected to end an
eventful four years of coalition governance which the partners have admitted
was not working.
U.S. Deputy assistant secretary of state for the
bureau of African Affairs Dr. Reuben Brigety told the media after a meeting
with vice president Joice Mujuru that the U.S., which for over a decade has
maintained sanctions on Zimbabwe, is keen to thaw relations.
“We know
that 2013 is a very important year in the history of Zimbabwe,” he said.
“We, like much of the Western world, hope for peaceful, democratic process
throughout the course of this year that will lead to peaceful and legitimate
internationally recognized democratic elections and we hope to have a
strengthened relationship with Zimbabwe because of it and most importantly
hope that the future of the Zimbabwe will be brighter,” Brigety
added.
He said his government would watch the forthcoming plebiscite
with keen interest. “The government of the United States will obviously be
watching the nature of the elections. We very much hope the government of
Zimbabwe will invite neutral international election monitors to observe,” he
said.
“We very much hope that they, along with the rest of the
international community, can help to put the stamp of international approval
on what we are sure will be free and fair elections later this year,” he
said.
Brigety said there are many U.S. based organizations keen on
assisting in ensuring the polls are free and fair.
Relations between
Zimbabwe and the U.S. soured over a decade ago when the U.S. government,
taking a cue from the British, enacted the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic
Recovery Act which imposed sanctions on the southern African country.
Harare, February
21, 2013 - Zimbabwe Prison Services Commissioner Retired Major General
Paradzai Zimondi on Wednesday pleaded with the churches to cleanse the
Harare Remand Prison of satanism. Zimondi's deputy, Huggins Machingauta, said
the continued stay of the satanists at the prison is "worrying".
“I
take it today here we have members of different church denominations at this
meeting. There are satanists detained just behind us, find ways of assisting
them,” Zimondi pleaded to prison stakeholders whom he was engaging for
assistance.
Remand Prison is housing two Congolese nationals and a
Rwandese after they appealed to prison authorities to start their satanism
church at Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge.
While detained at
Mutare Remand Prison authorities pleaded to separate the three,Busy Mana
Thenetse,George Renee Lungange and Ngezi Bragston so that they would not
influence fellow inmates to follow their satanistic church.
Last week two
of the satanists told journalists at the prison that authorities were
preventing them from following their tradition.
They said that the
Zimbabwean authority should either quickly deport them or allow them to
follow their religion while in prison.
Fellow inmates told journalist at
the prison last week that, the two, when they arrived caused a stir after
demanding human blood, a coffin and a red cloth so that they can demonstrate
their power.
“We are a Christian country and we do not subscribe to their
religion," said Machingauta. We have since engaged the relevant authorities
to fast track their deportation but the process seems to be taking
long.”
ZPS spokesperson Superintendent, Elizabeth Banda, said: “We
must think about the safety of officers who spend most of their time with
these people. We are not happy with the satiation as we strongly believe
their interaction with these satanists might also affect their private
lives."
Dianah Pazvakavambwa, a Prison Ministry Coordinator with Faith
Ministries, said they will pray for both officers and the satanists.
Earlier in 2012 a film was released in the media highlighting the
ruling party, Zanu-PF, using the apostolic church’s influence in the country as
a tool for propaganda before the planned
elections.
This follow-up film
highlights further efforts of the ruling party to use the Vadzidzi VaJesu church
to promote the interests of the ruling party. Furthermore, nepotism within the
party and its election campaign is also identified with clear links made between
the ruling party’s and the church’s leadership.
With the promise of
national elections, and with campaigning on the rise, there is much speculation
into the future of the country’s political destiny. With the severe
socio-economic challenges the country faces ranging from a lack of clean running
water to even basic public sanitation services, there are fears of more violent
escalation in the run-up to the election, especially with the identified rise in
propaganda by competing parties.
WASHINGTON — Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai has been invited to the inauguration ceremony of South Korean
President Park Geun-Hye on Monday.
But the invitation has raised
political temperatures in the fragile government of national unity after a
columnist in the state-controlled Herald newspaper Nathaniel Manheru,
believed by many to be president Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson, George
Charamba, attacked Mr. Tsvangirai for breaking the country’s laws by seeking
campaign money from a foreign nation.
The article labels South Korea a
“subaltern of americanised imperialism”. Mr. Tsvangirai is also expected to
get an honorary doctorate from South Korea, his second one in three
years.
President Mugabe has hitorical links with North Korea, which
trained a crack army unit that massacred thousands of people in
post-indepdence Zimbabwe.
Mr Tsvangirai’s advisor, Alex Magaisa told VOA
that Mr. Tsvangirai’s visit is official. He dismissed claims that the prime
minister is looking for campaign funding.
HARARE - Staff members in
the President’s office hosted a colourful 89th birthday party for the ageing
President Robert Mugabe at State House in Harare this Wednesday. The
President said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr Gono made a bet
that he will give him 89 cows if he turns that age which he has done, saying
he was since given the herd. Mugabe however said he wishes to go beyond
120 years to beat Gono’s mother who the Governor claims died at that
age. Mugabe turns 89 this Thursday.
His 89th birthday party was
attended by his wife Grace Mugabe; the Minister of Media, Information and
Publicity, Webster Shamu, the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs,
Didymus Mutasa; Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck
Sibanda and senior staff members in the President’s office. During the
celebrations, President Mugabe was treated to Shingisai Siluma’s song
entitled, ‘Mwari Munongondichengeta,’ which he requested during his 88th
birthday celebrations held in Mutare last year.
Mugabe paid tribute to
his staff members for the continued support they always give him in
executing his national responsibilities.
Staff in the President’s office
later presented him with gifts including groceries and US$6 000, which
Mugabe will donate to any charity organisation of his choice.
The
President was later joined by staff members and the First Lady in cutting
his birthday cake amid the ‘Wish You Many More Years’ song. Mugabe said “In
my small way, this is the task the Lord might have wanted me to fulfil among
my people and as I carry the burden of fulfilling it, it being a divine
task, I read it as a bidding of God. A commandment that this is how you
serve your nation,” President Mugabe said. He added: “The bidding says you
move forward ever. Do not retrace when you are right. No backward movement
when you are right. Your principles must be well defined. If they are those
principles meant to enhance your people so they fit on the great
neighbourhood, then there is no retreating. Principles become
sacred.” President Mugabe thanked God for reaching 89 years. “It is He,
our Creator, who is responsible for the fact that I am 89, and true when you
get to that stage you cannot avoid thinking that yesterday when I was
younger we were many. Some have dropped off. Where are they gone? “The Lord
has chosen that they go. The Lord has chosen that I remain. Why is it that
all my friends are gone and my relatives are gone and I continue to linger
on? It is not my choice. It is His choice. Painful choice. As you move from
stage to stage, there is a kind of loneliness and solitude around you
because of the loss of friends, loss of relatives and of very dear ones. “You
say to yourself that is life. That is how He who has made us, wants us to
sustain life. He destroys here and constructs there. That is it, and we
continue to live,” he said. Mugabe said God gives people life so that
they fulfil objectives and enables them to make the most apt
choices. “And the choice that we make is that we shall live to serve others
as indeed we serve ourselves, our nation and our country. The Lord wants us
to be Zimbabweans in their own country with right of ownership over our own
resources with abilities and capabilities to defend those rights against
those who want to encroach on them,” he said. He thanked staff in his
office, the security forces, the media and everyone who has been supportive
of his leadership. To staff in his office, he said: “Let us continue to be
that united. If you are not united as the engine, we make all kind of
disjointed noises and the engine will not be able to pull. We should be able
to pull, pull and pull ourselves so that we pull the nation. It is a joy to
work with you, to work with people with confidence in you,” he
said. President Mugabe applauded the intelligence and security services for
performing “a wonderful work” in exposing activities of the enemy and taking
the necessary preventive measures. Chief Secretary to the Presidency and
Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda, speaking on behalf of staff in the President’s
Office, said they were honoured to be among a few Zimbabweans to work with
President Mugabe. “We continue to draw inspiration from your enduring
legacy,” he said. The celebrations saw distinguished singer Shingisai Suluma
serenading the First Family and guests with gospel songs. Her performance
yesterday followed a special request by President Mugabe during celebrations
to mark his birthday in Mutare last year that Mai Suluma play him the song
Munongondichengeta (nanhasi). While Mai Suluma remained in Zimbabwe after the
Christmas Holidays, his husband and family flew into the country from the US
on Tuesday night for the celebrations. President Mugabe praised Mai
Suluma and her band for the highly spiritual songs. “Shungu yakabuda
kwaMutare yekuti vandiimbire rwumbo urworwo rwokuti mwari anondichengeta.
Tinotenda nokuti anotichengeta kana paripapi urimwana wake achikuda
panotsvedza, panotyisa, pangave pane mhepo inovhuvhuta zvakadii ichitora
vamwe inokusiya. Dzimbo dzavo dzakadzama. Matendero haasi okungo pfugama
uchiti baba vedu varikudenga tinokutendai. Ivo vanechipo chokuti zvibve
zvatapira zvikurukuru,” President Mugabe said. He said it was a rare calibre
of musicians in the mould of Mai Suluma. “Mazwi avanawo orutendo kunamwari
abva apinda mumoyo medu ngatianzwisise. Rudo rwavo ndinorutenda zvikurukuru.
Ndinoti kwavari chokwadi mandiitavo kuti ndive mumwe wenyu. “I want to
express my very deep and most sincere gratitude for the message that she has
relayed through her well composed songs. Four of them one after another all
carrying that spiritual message that it is he our creator who is responsible
for the fact that I am 89,” President Mugabe said. Mai Suluma said she was
honoured to be invited to perform at the special occasion. Meanwhile,
President Mugabe had earlier met Bishops of the Inter-Regional Meeting of
Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa at State House. The President briefed the
bishops from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Sao Tome and
Principe, Swaziland and South Africa on political developments in Zimbabwe
from the 2008 harmonised elections, formation of the inclusive Government
and the Constitution-making process. He told the bishops the political
situation in Zimbabwe was calm guaranteeing the holding of peaceful
elections this year. Speaking through Archbishop Liborius Nashenda of
Namibia, the bishops commended President Mugabe for taking a stand against
political violence. They said the church was ready to co-operate with other
concerned citizens in stopping intimidation of voters. The bishops noted
that the illegal Western sanctions were harmful to Zimbabwe and must be
removed.
HARARE - Finance Minister and its
Secretary General Tendai Biti says MDC supports calls to investigate
indigenisation agreements reached with various foreign companies amid
serious concerns that only one Harare financial advisory company has handled
the transactions pocketing millions of dollars. Recent media revelations on
the skewed Zanu PF indigenisation and empowerment policy once again
vindicates the MDC’s position that the Zanu PF policy is inconsistent and
will not in any way benefit the people of Zimbabwe but only a few elite Zanu
PF politicians.
The MDC maintains that the Zanu PF economic policy is
presiding over a collapsing economy instigated by a regime of incoherent and
disastrous policies.
Media reports reveal that the Zimbabwean
government has lost over US$1 billion in the Zimbabwe Platinum Mines
(Zimplats) indigenisation deal due to contradictions and
misrepresentations.
From the beginning the MDC’s position has been that
Zanu PF’s indigenisation and empowerment policy has been vaguely crafted to
legitimise enormous pilfering of the country’s resources by its fat cats
while the people of Zimbabwe continue to languish in abject
poverty.
The recent Renco Mine debacle involving Zanu PF’s Walter Mzembi
and other senior party officials in Masvingo, in the grabbing of the mining
venture points to a history of plunder and asset stripping that has
characterised Zanu PF since independence in 1980.
The revelation of
corruption in Manicaland where the Zanu PF provincial leaders extorted over
US$700 000 from diamond mining firms was just a precursor of a deep-rooted
scourge of plunder and expropriation entrenched in the Zanu PF
system.
As a party, the MDC will continue to boldly and candidly expose
Zanu PF’s dishonesty and insincerity in this whole facade of empowering
people.
The current unbelievable revelations in the local newspapers
prove correct the MDC fears on the whole indigenisation circus as advanced
by Saviour Kasukuwere.
It is indeed regrettable that the continued
rise in corruption activities by Zanu PF officials as exposed in the local
media comes on the backdrop of Robert Mugabe’s recent admission at the just
ended Zanu PF congress in Gweru that there is rampant corruption in Zanu
PF.
The shocking revelations of the unimaginable proportion of corrupt
deals, involving Kasukuwere’s indigenisation project and Brainworks Capital
company vindicates our earlier assertions that the indigenisation drive
was nothing but a massive cash cow for only well connected Zanu PF fat
cats.
Despite Mugabe strongly promising the nation at the just ended Zanu
PF congress, that he is going to deal with this scourge, there is absolutely
no hope that the ageing Zanu PF leader still has the capacity to reign in
his corrupt lieutenants leaving the nation at the mercy of the indefatigable
corrupt barons. This clearly shows that Mugabe no longer has the capability
and stamina to take this country forward.
The MDC is not against the
economic empowerment of the people of Zimbabwe but is strongly against the
Zanu PF model that will benefit its wealthy elite doing little to solve the
country’s employment crisis while scaring away the much-needed foreign
investment.
The MDC has come up with an economic policy, Jobs,
Upliftment, Investment, Capital and the Environment (JUICE) that will
address Zimbabwe’s long standing economic problems of high unemployment,
deepening poverty and inequality and be a pathway for inclusive and
sustainable long-term growth based on a broad-based human upliftment
model.
By registering to vote and voting yes for the new constitution you
will define your future, a future without disastrous policies like
indigenisation.
International human rights group Global Witness said there
are gaps in the outstanding restrictions on Zimbabwe that may allow diamond
revenue to continue funding the military until —at least— the elections
expected in July.
According to the advocacy organization, Monday’s
European Union decision of letting the African country to go ahead with some
diamond and gold sales in Europe had a major breach. It failed to rule on
Anjin, Zimbabwe's largest diamond company, which is part owned by the
military, but not covered by the restrictive measures, Global Witness
warns.
The advocacy group did welcome the fact that some restrictions
against Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), a major state-run
diamond and gold mining company, remained in place.
"However, the EU
could have gone further to prevent diamond revenues funding ZANU-PF security
forces," campaigner Emily Armistead said in a statement.
Zimbabwe's
diamond industry has been fraught with controversy both domestically and
internationally due to accusations of human rights abuses and
corruption.
The country’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti has accused
diamond firms of failure to pay tax revenues in full to the authorities,
claiming only $40 million out of an expected $600 million reached government
coffers last year.
And according to Global Witness there are ongoing
ties between diamond miners and security forces loyal to President Robert
Mugabe. Some of those groups, it says, were linked to political violence
that erupted during the 2008.
Zimbabwe’s diamond industry is critical
for the cash-strapped nation. Only last year it was responsible for $684.5
million in revenue.
One Billion
Risingis a campaign that takes its name from the
fact that one in every three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. The
global campaign, commemorated on February 14th, aims to get at least
one billion supporters worldwide to rise up to demand an end to violence against
women. As part of this initiativeViolet Gondabrings you a panel discussion on theHot Seatprogramme, to discuss the plight of women in
Zimbabwe.
Are some women’s groups
exaggerating violence reports to get donor funding and why are women failing to
speak with one voice in Zimbabwe? These are some of the issues discussed with
Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs Jessie Majome, media consultant Grace
Mutandwa and gender activist Betty Makoni.
A classic case of violence
against women in Zimbabwe, one of the participants, WOZA coordinator Jenni
Williams, was unable to take part because she was beaten up and briefly detained
by the police during a peaceful demonstration in Harare last
Wednesday.
Betty started by talking
about what theOne Billion
Risingcampaign means in the
Zimbabwe context.
BETTY
MAKONI:I think this one is significant because it
is coming at a time when we had high incidents of rape in India, in South Africa
and many places so the morale is quite high, everybody wants to express
something. It’s a world coming together so Zimbabwe is now strategically
positioned as a country; first to join the campaign but also to make a review on
the situation of women and girls in the country. As you know we still hold a
very serious dossier of evidence on women raped in 2008, it’s a pending case and
it’s something we want people to openly talk about because in the country we
cannot have some women whose genital organs are in pieces, whose hearts are
tattered so we are also coming in with women who have pain. But I am not sure
how far it has gone to rural areas.
Grace
Mutandwa:I think it is very good to have some of
these awareness campaigns but we should really go beyond awareness campaigns. We
seem to do quite a lot of talking, quite a lot of marching and nothing really
changes on the ground but also I think we need to go beyond even just blaming
men for beating up women and raping women and do something about it, especially
the issue of domestic violence, political violence. We women are the ones who
raised some of these men; when we are in our own homes and raising sons, we must
raise sons that respect women, that are gender-sensitive. We also need to
inculcate even in our traditional leaders, we need to respect the fact that
women have the right to move around without being molested, without being
harassed. I think we also need to get to a stage where our legislators need not
spend time talking, especially the male legislators, they shouldn’t believe just
by talking at rallies and denouncing violence against women or rape, they should
go beyond that. We should also have a law that stipulates that any man who rapes
a woman should be jailed for longer than a cattle rustler. I think a woman’s
life is more important than a cow in security or life.
VIOLET: And
Jessie?
JESSIE:I think this
campaign comes at a very fitting time when it is clear that our traditional 16
Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence commemorations are not enough,
that we need to do more in order to raise awareness and also change attitudes to
gender-based violence and rape in particular so that we have absolute zero
tolerance. And I agree with Grace that we set it up with action and actually
really focus on exactly what it is we need to do in order to have impact and
results in order to reduce gender-based violence. I think it’s important that we
have these platforms to share information and to give awareness about what for
example the government is doing. On the 25thof November 2012 at the launch of the 16
Days of Activism campaign for Zimbabwe, my Ministry launched the national Action
Gender-based Strategy, which is aimed at four key result areas. The first one is
for protection of women, and men I suppose, from gender-based violence. And then
the second key result area is the provision of services to those who would have
been unfortunate enough to suffer gender-based violence and the third is
documentation and research, monitoring and evaluation – it’s the management of
this whole process, and the last is the co-ordination of all these efforts to
end gender-based violence and the ultimate aim, the ultimate goal of this
particular strategy is to ensure that by the year 2015 Zimbabwe would have
reduced all incidents of gender-based violence, including rape, by
20%.
VIOLET:We have heard
that in South Africa for example, three to four women are raped every minute but
in Zimbabwe we talk about gender based violence but is it known how many women
and children are horribly brutalized in Zimbabwe? Are there any statistics
Jessie?
JESSIE:Yes there are
statistics but as I indicated that our national gender based violence strategy
has one if its key result areas the issue of research and documentation; that we
actually centralise our statistics and get the statistics. At the present moment
the statistics that we get are patchy. We’ve got them coming up from all sorts
of places – the police have theirs, the women’s NGOs that deal with violence
like Msasa and so on, have theirs and so on. So we really need to work better at
coordinating. And the health institutions also have their own so that is why one
of our key result areas is that of research and documentation and monitoring and
evaluation so that we can streamline our data collection. So what we have at the
moment is like a general landscape view of the extent and magnitude of the
gender-based violence.
The Zimbabwe demographic and
health service is so far our most reliable indicator of the trends at least of
gender-based violence; the 2010 to 11 one indicated that 30% of women
interviewed then have ever experienced physical violence since the age of 15 and
in relation to the Billion Rising campaign it is most saddening to note that of
the women interviewed, 22% of them reported that their first sexual encounter
was forced. I picked this statistic because it indicates that it actually
appears as if we have a systemic acceptance in our contemporary culture of
physical violence, of rape against women because surely if 22% of women’s first
ever experienced sexual relations through rape or is forced, it means it’s
really a part of the system, it’s internalised, it’s an integral part of the
system.
And then also recently we’ve
had statistics, gory statistics of rapes of children, of juveniles that the
police have released. We have a problem on our hands but our bigger problem is
that maybe we don’t know exactly how big our problem is yet and we need to
really work on that.
VIOLET:Betty what
can you say about that? What do you make of these trends that have been
described by the Deputy Minister and is it worrying that Zimbabwe has patchy
statistics and we don’t really know the extent of the problem regarding gender
based violence?
BETTY:We should be
ashamed because we are not looking at Zimbabwe from 2013. Zimbabwe had a
Ministry of Women’s Affairs since 1980 and from then we should know how many
women were murdered in Zimbabwe, how many of our children who came for sexual
abuse examination at the hospital.
But my work in Zimbabwe from
1998 to 2008 gave me an estimated 6000 girls who came out to report rape, forced
marriages given to appease spirits. I also want to say organizations like Msasa
Project have been working a long time with the police, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers
and I think in terms of the NGO sector we should have a story.
But you know what Violet,
women’s issues are not only numbers, women’s issues are stories. With the coming
up of social media it has come to my attention that I was even receiving less
because they could not come to my office. If you open my in-box, you will find
that from last year I’m getting up to 40 000 emails, most of them about women
who are crying to come out of violence. So I think in our attempt to look at the
broader picture, I think we should open doors for social media to come in
because people are looking for someone to report to anonymously. I know I’m in
England, I’m far away from Zimbabwe, I can’t be like other people who are there
but it’s also spilling over. Every day I get ten cases.
JESSIE:Sorry can I
just interrupt? Betty it is not actually correct that Zimbabwe has had a
Ministry of Women since 1981. There was a ministry in 1981 but the life of this
ministry has been something like the life of a phoenix – it rises, and then it
goes into ashes, it rises again so there has not been a continuous ministry that
has been in existence. I thought it was important that we just correct that
because sometimes there’s been a unit within a
ministry…(interrupted)
BETTY:I thought the
last time I interacted with the government minister who had something to do with
women was with Minister Oppah Muchinguri; I remember all their staff members,
even up to now I’m in touch with some of them – so I’m thinking, if we track
even a department, a department of women, and whatever files they have on women,
we can actually track everything up to today.
JESSIE:You’d be
surprised at the extent of, or lack of record keeping in continuity, you’d be
amazed at that. Unfortunately it has not been working like
that.
VIOLET:Let me go
Grace and get her thoughts on this, especially on the issue of information
gathering because there are some critics who have said that there are some bogus
statistics – especially on the numbers that we’ve heard on politically motivated
rape cases and that some of the women’s organizations are inflating the
figures.
Grace:I can’t really speak on behalf of various organizations
but you know there is also a bit of agenda setting with some organizations so
that might come into play where the statistics are inflated and stuff like that.
But to be honest with you we have serious problems in terms of monitoring and
recording stats in Zimbabwe, be they be violence or rape statistics or even
cancer statistics, we have serious issues. We are not well equipped to do it, we
don’t have the financial resources to do it. I think it’s important that
organizations should come together and try and as far as possible record
whatever stats there are and ensure that these are proper statistics. People
weigh what they can do when they have been raped; they either keep quiet and so
it’s not recorded.
So we have to look at the
issue of where we are coming from as a people. Issues of sexuality are not very
easy for us to discuss openly so we’d rather hide some of the issues and at
times also, us as women, we do not support each other and where political
violence is concerned, some people don’t even want to be involved, they don’t
even want to talk about it and we deal with these issues on an ad hoc
basis.
When there is an election we
start talking about violence against women, women being beaten because of their
political leanings and then when it’s 16 Days of Activism we start talking about
domestic violence – we don’t seem to actually realise that these are issues that
we should deal with on a day-to-day basis, not on an ad hoc
basis.
VIOLET:I will come
back to the issue of women activists not working together but Jessie can you
tell us why activists like Betty Makoni are able to get statistics and the
government is not?
JESSIE:The role of
the government is not to get the statistics directly because when women get
beaten up they don’t run to the Ministry of Women Affairs, they go to all sorts
of other places. So the challenge there and the task is to actually develop a
system that actually collects those statistics centrally and processes them in a
reliable manner. So this is what is needed to be worked upon. Statistics are
very important because they say that you can’t manage what you can’t measure,
but on the other hand I think we must also be very careful when we bandy around
statistics, we must ensure that they are reliable and that they are accurate
particularly in issues that are sensitive such as gender-based violence. Because
when we do that, we might actually be undermining the credibility of the
campaign to end gender-based violence. Let’s be very pro-active about this so
that we can keep the moral high ground and keep people realizing that this is
serious – even just one person who is raped is bad enough. We need to really put
our statistics into perspective and show that they’re reliable; otherwise we
really also damage our cause.
BETTY:I think I
should respond to Minister. I’m not working as an employee for gender, I’m
working as a passionist, as somebody who is emotional about the issue so I’m
totally different as an activist. What we should acknowledge first, even with
whatever statistics we think is wrong, is just to invite anybody we feel is
saying something. So whatever statistics people could have given to media or
whatever, a concerned ministry because that’s your first point of call, is to
call you for a meeting – we hear this, let’s just verify issues, let’s just
follow up with you, what is it that you think we should do. That’s what
ministers in government are supposed to do. And then the other thing is that
when I personally got involved with 287 women depositing evidence on how they
were raped during political violence, it was me on the side. The recommendation
I want to make to the Minister is statistics are never going to be accurate but
based on whatever pieces, stories, whatever we have picked up, a Ministry like
yours should be the stepping stone. You can actually say – okay this is what
they’re saying – wrong or right – but there is an outcry on this particular
issue so as the ministry you have the authority to then do thorough research but
these women…
JESSIE:That’s
exactly why our key result area of the national-gender based violence strategy
is to actually develop a means of actually collecting those statistics, research
so that we know exactly what’s going on, we actually collate them from wherever
they are and we assess them and we use them and that’s exactly why our key
result area number three is exactly that. It’s exactly what the government
intends to do.
VIOLET:Grace do you
believe we have a dedicated government that wants to see change and is
pro-active on this issue?
Grace:I think there is will power within the government but
at times they get derailed by other issues. We have a government that’s
grappling with all sorts of issues; they have political issues to deal with, and
at times some of these issues get buried in the cracks because they are busy
dealing with maybe matters of the constitution.
But I want to go back to the
issue of statistics. As a journalist I think organizations become more credible
if they give statistics that are believable, statistics that are real and not
inflating statistics.
If a woman is raped, that’s
enough for people to just actually come out and cry rape. We shouldn’t wait for
200 women to be raped so that we can be outraged. We can be outraged by just one
rape case because at the end of the day, we end up with organizations that are
being called trouble-making organizations just because someone has inflated
statistics. We don’t have to inflate statistics; we should just say rape is bad,
it’s wrong, it’s evil, it should be dealt with.
JESSIE:And can I
also say something? I think it is important also that understand that we are all
human rights activists and so on that even that ministry of the government is
meant to do that. So we must avoid getting into the stereotype where we say the
government is not sensitive and these things can only be found by women’s
organizations. I’ll give you an example – these 200 or so women who were raped
in the 2008 elections, they are not issues that are necessarily with just NGOs.
I’m a political activist myself, I’m a women’s right activist, I deal with these
issues on the ground, I actually know about these things first hand, let’s not
try and dismember the women’s movement. I might actually be more in touch with
those issues than possibly, possibly, possibly even Betty because I know, I’ve
worked with these women on the ground, these are women of flesh and blood, they
are here in Zimbabwe and we know some of them and sometimes when we say figures
and so on, let’s be really careful how we use them. I agree with Grace – just
one woman who has been raped is bad enough and let’s deal with the quality of
the violation against women and …
VIOLET:Let me just
interrupt you there Deputy Minister – you and Grace have said that one case
should be enough to get rights activists to rise up but how come we’re not even
seeing that? A good example is what happened with the WOZA women – Jenni
Williams was supposed to be a participant in this panel discussion today. She
was arrested together with some of the members in their organization, they were
beaten up but there was no outcry and this is just a few women. This is a case
that we all know.
GRACE: Can I say
something Violet about that? I think that there’s something seriously wrong with
the women’s movement in this country. We as women do not support each other, we
have serious issues. You hear that a fellow activist has been arrested or beaten
up, some people will not even support because they think that it’s not their
issue. We look at issues in terms of who is the person that has been affected
and I think that’s wrong. It’s the same like what happened when Jestina Mukoko
disappeared. Some people didn’t even want to know about it but it’s not because
she had done something wrong but it’s because they just didn’t want to know. We
seem to bear these grudges that I don’t really understand. As a media woman it
bothers me because I try to talk to various women and find out about certain
issues but you find some people close-up just because they don’t want to hear
about a certain person.
I think we need to be mature
enough to say yes we do not agree on certain issues but we are still all women
and we’ve got the right to disagree but we should still support each
other.
VIOLET:Right. It’s
interesting that we are talking about this issue right now because there appears
to be this unwillingness in the women’s groups to work together to fight this
epidemic of violence and other issues. For example I had problems just putting
this panel together because some women activists were saying that they didn’t
want to be on the same panel with Betty Makoni for example while others said
they didn’t want to be on the same panel with Jessie or Jenni
Williams.
BETTY:Yah and I
think Violet you shouldn’t go far away from even today’s discussion. ‘Betty
Makoni was on the ground ten years ago’, how dare a woman could come to a leader
of my calibre to just say your figures are inflated? We know all about this
cheap talking amongst us. The thing is we have never sat on a round table to ask
– ‘when you say this Betty what exactly did you mean?’ We have got women who are
pointing fingers. If one is not there on the ground like other women you have
every opportunity to ask her to sit down to discuss. But the thing is that the
roundtable discussion for women are full of women who are full of themselves –
they know everything, they are the top ones and they look down upon other women
or they are jealous about them. It is also petty jealousy. People fighting over
donor monies and not fighting over women who are suffering, women who are
divided by politics. Some are aligned to MDC, some women are spending most of
their time gossiping in offices and not attending to women we see
suffering.
So if we are to call a spade
a spade, I think a classic example is how women look down upon other women. How
do you know that woman’s statistics are all wrong? How do you know you are all
right? Who gave you that authority for you to rule over another woman’s work? So
the most critical thing right now is we must have a dialogue among ourselves.
Where I am wrong there is always a good and professional way to talk to me.
Where I am right and I get an award, I must be congratulated for that but petty
jealousies will continue to divide us. But over small matters
…
JESSIE:Violet you
know what? I’m concerned that this discussion seems to have degenerated to
something else, not the issue of violence against and rape against women because
the reason why we have the Billion Rising campaign is to draw attention to just
the horror of rape and its unacceptability. I’m hoping that one day we will
solve all our problems and issues in the women’s movement but we are better at
doing that if we focus on the issues in particular. And I want to say that, back
to the women’s organizations, we were talking about the issue of Jenni Williams
–I was on my way to Parliament today – I saw papers strewn all over the corner
of Second Street and Nelson Mandela and clearly they were WOZA papers. There was
a demonstration and so I think maybe that’s why Jenni was arrested. So I’m
saying this to indicate that the women’s movement in Zimbabwe and all our
activism against violence has been affected by the political polarization in our
country. The politics, the national politics that we have where there’s also
violence and polarization and intimidation makes also some women afraid of
associating with maybe women who are seen as maybe vocal or too vocal. Like in
this particular case, I know that Jenni Williams and WOZA, they are very bold
and they are very courageous; they have their own ways of dealing with things
and that kind of way of dealing with things makes others uncomfortable, those
that might think it is unsafe to do and they might feel that they are inviting
trouble and that is also another form of systemic violence against women. Where
women feel afraid to express themselves or feel that they must express
themselves in a particular way and be acceptable. So those are some of the
issues that we need to deal with but I want to be optimistic.
I’m optimistic that in the
draft constitution that we have produced at COPAC we have established, we have
tried to set more or less like a framework for a country that has a human rights
culture, that prioritises the dignity and the equality of people and that
removes violence from our politics and that attends to give checks and balances
and also that gives, enshrines equality for women and an end to
discrimination.
And also in particular
introduces an engendered right to security of the person which includes freedom
from violence, even from domestic sources and also even goes as far as the law
enforcement agents and administration agents to make sure that they ensure that
people lead prosperous, happy and fulfilling lives. And so we have a lot of work
to do in terms of changing our mind set, making Zimbabwe safer and safer and
more humane and more or less like a kinder society.
VIOLET:Unfortunately
I’ve run out of time but I would just ask for a final word from Grace and
Betty.
GRACE: All I just
want to say is that I agree with Jessie that at times it’s us women who are our
worst enemies and we believe that it’s within men’s rights to actually beat us
up but until we find a way of loving ourselves, until we find a way of
respecting ourselves, no-one else is going to do that.
BETTY:My final word
is let’s not mystify the issues on women who are going through domestic
violence, they are reporting all over. Social media opened a floodgate of
reports. There are many groups set up on social media where women are reporting
under ‘hide my ID’ but they are speaking out. And also if we are in leadership,
no matter what level of leadership we get to reach to, let’s also remember we
came from those poor women who are trying to talk to us. I think some offices
are way too high even for ordinary women to say how are you, and we should not
discourage and accuse them of inflating statistics. We should go to them and
talk to them.
VIOLET:Thank you
very much Betty Makoni, Jessie Majome and Grace Mutandwa for talking to us on
the programme Hot Seat.
We would like
to register our grave concerns over the obvious selectivity and bias in the
manner in which the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, Chapter
14:33, is being administered by the relevant ministry.
It is
clear that foreign owned companies are not being treated equally. Part 11
(3)(a) of the Act provides that 51% of shares in every public company and
any other business shall be owned by indigenous Zimbabweans.
The
statute defines “indigenous Zimbabweans” as individuals, companies and
corporate partnerships that, before independence in 1980, were disadvantaged
by unfair discrimination on the grounds of race, descent, and other
prejudices.
Indigenisation itself is defined as a “deliberate
involvement of indigenous Zimbabweans in the economic activities of the
country, to which hitherto they had no access, so as to ensure the equitable
ownership of the nation’s resources.”
Several companies with European
links have recently been frog-marched to sign the indigenisation agreement –
obviously believing it futile to resist the pressure. But many big companies
above the minimum threshold of $500,000 as specified by the law have been
spared.
These include the Chinese-backed Anjin diamond mining company and
Indian-owned Essar Holdings.
Why are they being spared? If we go back
to the definitions given above, it is as clear as a cloudless sky that the
owners of Anjin and Essar are not indigenous people nor are their companies
indigenous concerns.
Excluding them from indigenisation thus violates the
provision on indigenisation, as defined above. Surely Minister Saviour
Kasukuwere, who is in charge of the indigenisation ministry, should be
prosecuted for this flagrant violation of the law?
In fact, the whole
process of indigenisation runs into the danger of being criminal if the act
is not enforced in a proper manner.
The endorsement of a new constitution will presage fresh
elections. It is uncertain whether Robert Mugabe and his party would allow
anybody else to win
