(AFP) – 9 hours
ago
HARARE — Zimbabwe's ivory stockpile has rocketed to 42,000 kilos up
from a
previous record of 29,000, but the country cannot sell it due to a
ban,
state media reported on Sunday.
"At the moment there is a
nine-year moratorium on the international sale of
ivory from Zimbabwe, it
will end in 2016," Romana Nyahwa, acting director
for Zimbabwe National
Parks and Wildlife told the Sunday Mail newspaper.
The Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES)
imposed the moratorium in an attempt to curb pouching.
"But it is not
definite that after 2016 we will be able to sell our ivory,"
added
Nyahwa.
She said the country would have to apply for a special permission
from CITES
to sell the tusks. It costs Zimbabwe $13 million annually to
secure the
stockpile.
"The proposal will be discussed and if it
passes, permission will be granted
for the sale to take place. The sale will
be conducted under some agreed
conditions, for example, selling to specific
countries," she said.
Most of the tusks, valued at $10 million, were
collected from conservation
areas and rural districts countrywide.
In
2008, the southern African country sold 3.7 tonnes of ivory for $487,162
approved under an international agreement.
The auction was open only
to buyers from China and Japan, who were required
to only sell it within
their countries.
According to official statistics, Zimbabwe has an
elephant population of
100,000 but a large number fell prey to poachers
during the country's
economic crisis.
http://www.diamondpriceguide.com
February 6, 2011 | Updated
Feb 6, 2011 17:10 by RebeccaR
The World Diamond Council (WDC) has issued
an official statement to diamond
traders regarding the status of Zimbabwe
diamonds mined from the
controversial Marange diamond fields.
In the
statement, the WDC stresses the fact that Marange diamonds have yet
to be
certified by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and therefore
diamond traders are advised to be “cautious”.
The Kimberley Process
has been trying to come to a consensus regarding
Zimbabwe diamonds from the
Marange region for months now. While a decision
has not yet been reached,
some confusion was created after some member
governments of the Kimberley
Process signed a document in which they agreed
to allow the resumption of
exports from approved authorities on January
17th.
“As outlined in
the document,” the WDC said, “his approval is subject to
agreement on
continued oversight and monitoring. Before exports can resume,
however, the
authorities in Zimbabwe need to complete a series on
consultations with Mr.
Mathieu Yamba, the Chair of the Kimberley Process,
representing the
Democratic Republic of Congo.”
The WDC went on to say that these
consultations with Mr. Yamba are
“sensitive and ongoing” and suggested that,
despite efforts being made to
resolve the issue, it may still take a
significant amount of time before all
sides reach an agreement.
Until
an agreement is reached, the WDC stated that they will continue to
emphasize
to all diamond traders that any and all exports of diamond stocks
and
diamond production from even the approved authorities in Marange are not
certified by the Kimberley Process.
“We, therefore, advocate caution
and the adoption of due diligence when
trading rough diamonds on the
international market,” the WDC stated.
The World Diamond Council said that it
would notify members as soon as
consultations are concluded and a clear
directive has been received from the
Kimberley Process Chair.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Vusimuzi Bhebhe
Sunday, 06 February 2011
13:20
HARARE – A pro-democracy non-governmental organisation said the
army, war
veterans and youth militias have led a campaign of murder, rape
and looting
of property in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s home town
since 2002 and
warned that credible elections could only be possible after a
thorough
national healing process.
The Heal Zimbabwe Trust said groups of
Zanu (PF) supporters led by soldiers
and so-called war veterans with
assistance from Border Gezi Training Centre
youths, soldiers, police
officers, traditional chiefs and Central
Intelligence Organisation have been
involved in beatings and murder of
political opponents in Buhera during the
past nine years.
It said some of the victims have been forced to desert their
homes or had
their family members raped while others have been hounded out
of their jobs.
“The violence in Buhera has mainly been attributed to some
elements of war
veterans of the country’s war of liberation and deployed
army officers,” the
trust said, noting that participation of such
elements
has compromised the victims’ efforts to seek legal recourse and
civic
society organization’s peace building initiatives. The long arm of the
law
is yet to catch up with the perpetrators of political
violence.
“There is only one case of Reuben Muteve where the people who
murdered him
were arrested but all the other cases are lying idle in the
hands of the
police. This has further exacerbated violence in Buhera as the
perpetrators
have gone unpunished for a long time,” Heal Zimbabwe said. The
police have
refused to prosecute the perpetrators of the violence.
Buhera
district has witnessed unprecedented violence since the 2000
parliamentary
elections.
The district recorded the first murders of Zimbabwe’s post-2000
political
violence after the petrol-bombing deaths of Tsvangirai’s agent
Talent Mabika
and another MDC-T official Tichaona Chiminya in April 2000.
The political
duel between Zanu (PF) and the MDC-T has since then claimed
scores of lives,
displaced hundreds others internally and destroyed property
worth millions
of dollars.
According to a Zimbabwe Peace Project report,
Buhera South was hardest hit
by the political violence that accompanied the
2008 presidential election
run-off. About 350 people lost their property
while more than 500 others
were assaulted by Zanu (PF) militias. Heal
Zimbabwe has since the beginning
of the year been working with people in
Buhera on a peace-building programme
to reconcile members of the two
political parties.
One of the initiatives has been the weeding ceremonies
“nhimbes” that were
led by traditional leaders. This programme has brought
together villagers
from different political persuasions in an effort to
address issues of
polarization in local
communities.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/
05 February, 2011 11:44:00
UPI
LONDON, -- Hundreds of suspected war criminals including 32 Zanu
PF
terrorists have found harbor in Britain despite attempts to bring them to
justice, the government reports.
Over five years, a special war
crimes unit in the Border Agency has called
for action against 495 people
for genocide, torture and crimes against
humanity, but its report to the
parliamentary group on genocide shows only a
fifth have been deported,
refused entry or left, The Guardian reported.
The 383 suspects still at
large include 105 from Iraq, 75 from Afghanistan,
73 from Sri Lanka, 39 from
Rwanda, 32 from Zimbabwe and 26 from the
Democratic Republic of Congo. They
are said to include top Saddam Hussein
henchmen and ranking Afghan and
Congolese officials involved in torture.
New laws providing for domestic
prosecutions of suspected war criminals have
not yielded a single case, and
there have been no new investigations,
London's Metropolitan Police
say.
"The biggest problem is the lack of resources dedicated to
investigating
these serious cases and that we often don't know where these
individuals
are," said MP Michael McCann. "It means that if an arrest
warrant is issued
there is little likelihood it can be
served."
Meanwhile, violence has surged in Zimbabwe with reports of mob
attacks,
death threats, politically motivated arrests and at least one
shooting ahead
of possible elections, civil rights groups claim.
The
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims youth militias loyal to
Robert
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party are "running amok" in poor townships, and
accuses the
police of siding with the offenders.
Analysts regard the upsurge as a
warning sign that Mugabe is gearing up for
elections, possibly as early as
June, and fear a repeat of the 2008 polls in
which the MDC says 253 people
died.
"Violence is certainly escalating and we are really worried," said
Nelson
Chamisa, a government minister and MDC spokesman. "I think it's the
talk
about elections. Zanu-PF has not graduated from its traditional ways of
transacting politics by using violence."
Chamisa saw few grounds for
optimism. "Zanu-PF are determined to crush the
country," he added. "They
don't care; they never have. There is a danger of
worse violence. We still
want to see a clear roadmap implemented for a free,
fair and credible
election."
Reports of politically inspired attacks have grown steadily in
recent weeks.
An MDC youth leader, William Mukuwari, claims he was assaulted
and shot in
the leg by a gang including a Zanu-PF chairperson in Budiriro
township last
month.
Trouble erupted on Monday outside an MDC
district office in Mbare, a
township in the capital, Harare. At least 70
pro-Mugabe militants were
trucked in to throw stones and carry out assaults,
an independent doctors'
group said today. The rampaging mob sang Zanu-PF
songs and slogans and
carried party flags.
Several MDC members were
treated for "grave injuries" after the
disturbances, the doctors said. Seven
people were arrested but "there are no
reports of perpetrators being
arrested".
The MDC also claims that police are refusing to arrest Zanu-PF
members. It
said: "The police have become openly and undisputedly partisan
in that in
cases of any skirmishes involving youths from rival political
parties, it is
the MDC that suffers most.
"At the moment, dozens of
MDC youths have been arrested and charged with
public violence, a sizeable
number is nursing gunshot and stab wounds in
hospitals, hundreds are being
hounded out of their homes, and MDC property
is being destroyed with
impunity."
On Wednesday armed riot police reportedly sealed off the
downtown offices of
the Harare city council as it was besieged by mobs
chanting Zanu-PF slogans.
Council staff fled the building.
A number
of groups have warned of a rising political temperature. The
Southern Africa
Coalition for the Survivors of Torture reported that
tensions in Zimbabwe
rose markedly in January.
ZimRights, a human rights organisation, said
"high density suburbs in Harare
are rapidly turning into warzones". It
warned the MDC against an armed
response that "brings to mind civil unrest
in Egypt which is resulting in
unwarranted loss of life".
John
Makumbe, a Harare-based political scientist, told IRIN: "What you see
is the
tip of the iceberg. More violence is taking place in rural areas and
going
unreported.
"State agents are now part of the organised violence, and
there is bound to
be a sharp increase in political disturbances in the
coming months. If the
elections are [held] there will be bloodshed."
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Feb 5, 2011 11:44 PM | By VLADIMIR
MZACA
The battle to lure the support of one of the biggest religious
movements in
Zimbabwe has resulted in President Robert Mugabe giving the
Vapostori sect
permission to invade a farm owned by a white commercial
farmer in
Matabeleland South.
The Vapostori (apostles) religious
group has an estimated one million
followers countrywide, making it an
important political constituency.
Its numbers are swelled by a high birth
rate and polygamous marriages that
are permitted by the religion.
In
December an army of men in white garments from Masvingo Province in the
southeastern part of the country, together with their families, invaded
Lydead Ranch in Marula owned by Garry Rosenfels.
The sect arrived in
buses, claiming to have permission from the president to
take over the
ranch.
Rosenfels confirmed the invasion of his farm by the religious
men.
"They are settled at my farm. That is all I can say for now," he
said.
The Vapostori reportedly took over part of the farm's machinery and
irrigation equipment, forcing the owner's workers to work for
them.
The neighboring community and politicians in the area argued that
there was
no need to bring people from another region to invade local
farms.
Former MP for Bulilima, Norman Mpofu, condemned the
invasion.
Zanu-PF has in the past enjoyed the support of the Vapostori,
with its late
political commissar, Border Gezi, having been an influential
member of the
sect.
Gezi's rise was spearheaded by the religious
movement until his death in a
car accident.
Ever since Gezi's death,
Mugabe has kept ties with the religious movement,
promising to take care of
its needs in order to keep its support.
He has been seen attending
ceremonies conducted by the sect.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last
year also attending the movement's
gatherings.
However, last year in
July at the opening of parliament, the Vapostori were
there to cheer Mugabe.
They have also become regulars at Zanu-PF gatherings.
Last year Mugabe
attended a pilgrimage ceremony at Mafararikwa school in
Marange, where an
estimated 150000 people were in attendance.
At the ceremony the president
endorsed some of the sect's beliefs, such as
polygamy. Tsvangirai attended
another gathering in the same region.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Guthrie Munyuki
Sunday, 06 February 2011
17:52
HARARE - The Harare Residents Trust (HRT) has called on the
Harare City
Council to cancel debts accrued by residents in 2010 because the
city
fathers have ignored calls to correct their shambolic water billing
system.
Residents must instead, pay US$15 monthly without skipping
and maintain
their receipts, HRT said, as it renewed its fight against the
Harare City
Council (HCC).
“We have submitted a position paper urging
the City of Harare to cancel all
debts owed by residents to the City in 2010
and start afresh in January
2011,” HRT co-ordinator Precious Shumba told the
Daily News.
“Councillors have indicated at our various public meetings
that the city's
billing equipment is archaic, and that the billing system is
subject to
manipulation by the city employees, allegedly to cover up for
alleged acts
of corruption within the system.”
He said they had
received complaints from residents in Mabvuku and South
West high-density
suburbs of Highfield, Mufakose, Budiriro and Glen Norah
who were grappling
with “inflated” water bills.
“As the Harare Residents' Trust, we have
continued to receive reports from
residents, who believe the City of Harare
has been stealing from them, for a
very long time, through an archaic
billing system that discourages settling
of monthly bills,” Shumba
said.
“There is a growing feeling that they should not pay their rates
due to the
City of Harare because the more money they pay, the higher their
bills
become at the end of every month.
“There is delayed or
non-crediting of their accounts, rendering their
payments meaningless,” he
said.
The HRT point man said it was their policy to engage service
providers
whenever there were issues raised by residents.
He said the
City Treasurer, Misheck Mubvumbi, has not adequately responded
to their
concerns.
The other way of dealing with the crisis, as recommended by the
residents,
said Shumba, was to convene a stakeholders meeting with top HCC
officials to
find a lasting solution to the chaotic billing.
Local
Government minister Ignatius Chombo has already crossed swords with
the HCC
over the billing system and insists the municipality is failing to
move with
time by adopting technology that improves its revenue.
“An overbilled
consumer is an angry consumer. If you overcharge them, the
revenue does not
come and yet consumers are the source of that much needed
revenue,” Chombo
said recently when he was giving an update on the errant
councils who are
yet to finalise their budgets, including the HCC.
“In this era of
dollarisation, I don’t see the problem of many zeroes which
the officials
used as an excuse for the chaotic billing. They must embrace
new
technology.”
The snow-haired Chombo has clashed incessantly with
MDC-dominated councils
on performance-related issues and allegations of
corruption.
Councillors have accused Chombo of graft involving municipal
land, and in
turn, he has said they are “underperformers who grandstand for
cheap
political point-scoring”.
http://www.radiovop.com
06/02/2011
12:44:00
JOHANNESBURG, February 6, 2011- The latest disclosures by
the
whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks say Finance Minister Tendai Biti has
been
making recommendations to the European Union (EU) on which Zimbabwean
politician or business person connected to President Robert Mugabe should
remain or removed from the sanctions list.
The confidential cables of
the US embassies abroad reveal that Biti has been
working closely with the
EU in the maintenance and partial lifting of the
sanctions imposed against
Zimbabwean government leaders and business people
connected to
Mugabe.Wikileaks say despite Biti,s previous statements
condemning the
continuation of sanctions by the EU, he has been playing a
double role on
the issue.The cable, which originated from the US embassy in
London, in
January 2010 says the EU "decided to support ... a minimal
lifting of
sanctions on Zimbabwe by delisting the eight parastatals
requested by
Biti."
The memo also revealed that Biti was instrumental in having Zapu
leader
Dumiso Dabengwa removed from the list: "UK ministers agreed to
support
within the EU the de-listing of (1) the eight parastatals requested
by
Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Tendai Biti, (2) any persons on the list who
have died, (3) a Lebanese national (NFI), and (4) former ZANU-PF supporter
Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa."
The confidential diplomatic dispatch put paid
to claims that MDC-T has no
control over the sanctions policy in
Brussels.
It also shows the duplicity of the MDC-T within the inclusive
Government.
Ironically, Biti's MDC-T party has been involved in the
EU-Zimbabwe
political dialogue team which seeks to normalise relations
(including
lifting of Art. 96 of the Cotonou Agreement and sanctions)
alongside
progress in the implementation of the Global Political
Agreement.
A separate confidential cable released last week revealed that
MDC-T leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also the prime minister in the
inclusive
Government, used a state visit to the US to plot regime change in
Zimbabwe.
Last year the MDC-T said it has no control in the matter of
sanctions after
President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party charged that the
former opposition
party had a hand in setting the sanctions and therefore
should be held
responsible for removing them.
Zanu-PF has maintained
that it will not give in to anymore MDC-T demands as
it was not playing its
role in the lifting of sanctions.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Written by Vusimuzi Bhebhe
Sunday, 06 February
2011 13:47
HARARE – The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) says more than a
fifth of the
country’s financial institutions are under-capitalised, risking
depositors’
funds in the event that a crisis hits the banking sector.
The
unnamed financial institutions failed to court suitors under a
recapitalisation exercise ordered by the RBZ two years and which was
necessitated by the need to improve the banking sector’s liquidity following
the adoption of the multiple currency system. The financial institutions
were given until December 31 last year to inject fresh capital.
“As at 31
December 2010, nineteen (19) out of 24 banking institutions
(excluding POSB,
Intermarket Banking Corporation and the defunct NDH
Merchant Bank) were in
compliance with the prescribed minimum paid-up
capital requirements,” RBZ
governor Gideon Gono said last week.
He did not name the affected financial
institutions, except to say that all
asset management companies had met the
minimum paid-up equity capital
requirement of $500 000. This left the market
awash with speculation as to
which among the
remaining institutions – 14
commercial banks, five merchant banks and four
building societies – were in
distress and needed urgent recapitalisation.
Under the new capitalisation
thresholds, the RBZ requires commercial banks
to have a minimum capital
threshold of US$12.5 million. “In order to
consolidate the current improving
stability in the financial sector, it has
become necessary that the deadline
for paid-up capital thresholds be further
extended to 30th of June 2011,”
Gono added.
The Zimbabwean On Sunday first broke the news of the distressed
financial
institutions last month and said the failure by the banks to meet
the new
RBZ capitalisation requirements rekindled debate as whether or not
the
country is over-banked.
Analysts say that with its small population,
Zimbabwe only requires a
minimum of five and a maximum of 10 banks. The
country currently has more
than 40 financial institutions that are
scrambling for a shrinking cake.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
05 February, 2011 10:54:00
By ZOLI MANGENA
Robert Mugabe faces a grilling upon his return from
his annual leave at the
first cabinet meeting of the year on Tuesday over
the contested issue of
civil servants salaries which has divided the
inclusive government.
Senior government officials told the Sunday Times
the issue was going to be
hotly debated after Mugabe announced this week in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
that he would increase the salaries of public
servants with diamond revenues
which have not yet been declared to the
Treasury.
Mugabe was attending the African Union summit.
Finance
Minister Tendai Biti is not aware of the diamond sales and the
expected
revenues. Biti has fought many battles in cabinet with his
colleagues over
diamond revenues and the lack of transparency and
accountability around the
issue.
"The issue of civil servants' salaries is going to be debated next
week on
Tuesday. It has now become a controversial matter because of what
the
president said in Ethiopia, besides the divisions it has already caused
in
government," a senior government official said.
"The debate is
likely to be heated because of several reasons. The president
and his
ministers want to use diamond revenues to pay the public workers,
but the
problem is that money has not been declared to Treasury.
The other
problem is that government itself is divided on whether to
increase the
salaries or not. Some say there is no money, while others say
it can be
raised. The trouble is that the issue has now been politicised and
hence the
clashes."
Another senior government official said the situation would be
worsened by
the discussion over ghost workers in government. Public Service
Minister
Eliphas Mukonoweshuro is expected to table a report which has
unearthed over
75000 ghost workers in the civil service.
Civil
servants' representatives last week said an audit of the government
workforce had shown that tens of thousands of ghost workers were bloating
the wage bill.
"The audit has revealed that there are about 75000
ghost workers. It is a
fact. Civil servants were actually involved in
compiling that report and
they reported those issues to us. Officials at the
ministry also confirmed
this," Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe
president, Takavafira Zhou,
confirmed.
The issue is bound to provoke
a furious debate in cabinet, especially after
revelations that 10000 ghost
workers in the Ministry of Youth were employed
to campaign for Mugabe during
the 2008 elections.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai also raised a series
of controversial
matters on civil servants at a meeting with Mugabe on
Wednesday.
He also confronted Mugabe on political violence, the
constitution-making
process and elections. They also discussed the state of
affairs in the MDC-M
and the contested issue of new deputy prime
minister-designate Welshman
Ncube.
Mugabe told Zimbabweans at a
luncheon hosted by ambassador to Ethiopia,
Andrew Mtetwa, that Mbada
Diamonds, one the companies operating in the
controversial Chiadzwa diamond
fields, would pay a "large dividend" to
government after selling gems
recently.
"The Minister of Mines (Obert Mpofu) was telling me four days
ago that there
had been a third sale of diamonds and they are going to give
quite a large
sum to Treasury.
"It's going to assist also in raising
salary levels of the people and even
my salary level. If I show you my pay
slip, you won't believe it. I'm paid
$1750.36 but of course we are farmers,
we grow crops, we have piggery and
poultry projects which help our
families."
However, Biti, who adheres to fiscal discipline, has been
arguing it would
be reckless for government to increase salaries. Biti has
thus clashed with
colleagues, including Tsvangirai, over this. - Timeslive
http://www.radiovop.com
06/02/2011
12:46:00
JOHANNESBURG, February 6, 2011- A senior official of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) faction led by Welshman Ncube has
appealed to
Zimbabwean immigrants who have received their permits in South
Africa to go
home and register to vote in the next elections scheduled for
late this
year.
Nqabutho Dube of the MDC told The Sunday Times said
it was important for
Zimbabweans to return home for the elections.His
comments come in the wake
of reports that more than 40 000 of the 275 000
Zimbabweans who applied have
already received their permits.
"We are
encouraging Zimbabweans to participate in the upcoming elections. We
did an
analysis at the Beitbridge border in 2002 which showed that 200 000
people
crossed into the country from South Africa during the weekend of the
elections and believe it is possible for Zimbabweans in South Africa to come
home to vote," said Dube.
He said the challenge was that they were
not aware of the exact date on
which the elections would be
held.
"The population of Zimbabweans in South Africa is about three
million and
only 275 000 applied for permits. We wonder what's happening
with the other
two
million, which means there will be a challenge
reaching them with the
election message. They need to return home and vote,"
he said.
Dube said as a committee, they were also working hard to engage the
South
African authorities to safeguard the investments of Zimbabweans in
that
country who had acquired properties using fraudulently obtained SA
documents.Dube said the director-general of Home Affairs in South Africa,
Mkhuseli Apleni, met with Zimbabwe's ambassador to that country and came to
an agreement on how they could help Zimbabwe in processing passports to
speed up the documentation process.
The SA government announced that the
process would be completed by July and
deportations would resume in
August.
"Deportations will resume on August 1 and those caught with fake
South
African identity documents will be charged with fraud and face a jail
term
of 15 years according to a bill that is before the South African
parliament," Dube said.
He said they were now engaging the SA
government on the issue of traders.
The government had said it was still
reviewing this issue because currently
they are allowed to be in the country
for only 90 days per year.The whole
documentation process started when
Zimbabweans started using SA passports to
go to countries such as the UK and
US.
"The South African Home Affairs noticed this trend and when the
Zimbabweans
reached the diaspora they applied for citizenship as Zimbabweans
despite
using SA documents. Thus they had to clean up their Home Affairs
which led
to the withdrawal of 5 000 passports at the Beitbridge border post
in
December 2009.
"Those who failed to produce proof that they were South
Africans were
charged with fraud," he said.
Dube said that then his
party approached the South African government and
convinced them not to
charge these people and instead offer them amnesty to
regularise their
stay.His party was in the forefront of the negotiations
with the South
Africans who then agreed to grant the Zimbabweans amnesty,
which expired on
December 31 last year.
http://www.timeslive.co.za
Feb 5, 2011 11:44 PM | By THEMBA
SIBANDA
A moment of truth beckons this week for Zimbabwe's
Vice-President, John
Landa Nkomo, who is facing defamation charges laid by
Zanu-PF returnee and
Tsholotsho legislator, Jonathan Moyo.
Moyo's
lawyer, Job Sibanda, said High Court judge Francis Bere is expected
to hand
down judgment in the case on Tuesday.
"We have been waiting for the
judgment for some time. Remember the judgment
was deferred indefinitely as
the judge was preparing his ruling," Sibanda
said.
Nkomo is
represented by lawyer Francis Chirimuuta.
Chirimuuta could not be
contacted for comment at the time of going to press.
Moyo filed a
Z$2-billion lawsuit against Nkomo, who was at the time the
Zanu-PF chairman,
claiming damages from what he claimed were Nkomo's
inflammatory
statements.
According to papers filed by Moyo's lawyers at the time,
Nkomo is alleged to
have told a gathering of Zanu-PF supporters in
Tsholotsho, Matabeleland
North province, that Moyo had plotted a bloodless
coup against President
Robert Mugabe and the entire Zanu-PF
presidium.
The presidium refers to the top four leaders of the
47-year-old party.
"The statements by the defendants (Nkomo, Dabengwa) of
and concerning the
plaintiff were false, wrongful, unlawful and highly
defamatory," say court
papers.
Nkomo's statements stemmed from a
meeting allegedly organised and funded by
Moyo. Alongside the grand plan, it
is alleged Moyo had also planned to
subvert a proposed plan to elevate
incumbent vice-president, Joyce Mujuru,
to her current
position.
This, it was alleged, would have been made possible through
convincing six
of the 10 provincial chairpersons of the party to vote for
the rise of
Zanu-PF strongman Emmerson Mnangagwa to the vice-presidency
during the
party's 2004 congress.
With Moyo's return to the Zanu-PF
fold, the ruling is set to provide a
serious challenge to both parties given
that Nkomo is now the second
vice-president in the same party of which Moyo
is a member of the two
supreme decision-making bodies, the politburo and the
central committee.
Observers say the continued existence on the court
roll of this case and its
subsequent ruling are set to worsen relations
between the two.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Jane Makoni
Sunday, 06
February 2011 12:42
CHITUNGWIZA - The people of Zimbabwe must
arise and directly confront
dictator Robert Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) party,
because they have clearly
declared they will not cede power if they lose the
elections, says the
President of MDC99, Job Sikhala (Pictured).
“The time
has come for the oppressed people of Zimbabwe to adopt new tactics
aimed at
telling Mugabe enough is enough. We must demand our birth right and
freedom
from tyranny,” said Sikhala.
He said the ballot was a tested and failed
solution to the political crisis
and no right thinking political leadership
should give it another chance. It
serves only to legitimise the illegitimate
losing candidates and spill the
blood of the innocent electorate.
Sikhala
called on self-respecting and democratic movements not to take part
in
elections in which Mugabe is a candidate, as the veteran dictator would
manipulate the outcome and steal the ballot.
“Should Mugabe go it alone
like he did in the June 2008 Presidential
election re-run, his victory would
be as hollow as that claimed by the
toppled Tunisian President, Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali and the besieged Hosni
Mubarak of Egypt. With people out
on the streets, Mugabe would desperately
seek for dialogue with his rivals
but, unfortunately for him, the forces of
democracy would be no longer
prepared to give him a listening ear. Any
continued disrespect of the wishes
of the people by Mugabe and Zanu (PF)
should build up to mass confrontation
with the dictator.
Null and void
“Democratic parties should not waste
resources preparing for elections whose
outcome was already declared null
and void by Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa,
Didymus Mutasa, Service Chiefs and
other Zanu (PF) zealots. Instead, every
effort must be directed towards
confronting tyranny. It will eventually
crumble under the weight of people
power. Warnings by Zanu (PF) strongmen
that they would never surrender power
to political leadership lacking armed
liberation credentials are not idle
threats, as Zanu (PF) has clung to power
despite losing elections to MDC
since 2000,” said Sikhala.
He said given Mugabe and Zanu (PF)’s total
disrespect towards the laws of
the land, there was no reason to believe
Mugabe would play according to
rules set by the new constitution. So, the
much-awaited supreme law would be
of no consequence to the conduct of Zanu
(PF).
Sikhala said his party was warming up for a final and decisive
people-centred uprising against dictatorship as the end of tyranny was in
sight. He suggested that Mugabe should be confronted before elections are
held, as conducting elections with the octogenarian leader still on the
political scene would see innocent people killed for their political
beliefs.
“There is simmering anger in hearts of the oppressed and
ballot-robbed
masses of Zimbabwe. We need a focused and brave political
leadership to lead
the masses in the protests. In the past, Zimbabweans were
prepared to
stretch as far as it takes to stage resistant marches, but were
let down by
untrustworthy cowards masquerading as revolutionary leadership.
What people
expect is a strong leadership which does not chicken out in the
middle of
the mass protests and seek refuge across borders while the
defenceless
majority is slaughtered by the dictator’s dogs.”
Sikhala
pointed to the revolution in Tunisia that toppled the tyrannical
head of
state on January 14. It was ignited by a poor vegetable vendor who
set
himself on fire in protest against grinding economic hardships caused by
dictator President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. The unemployed Tunisian
graduate, Mahammed Bouazizi, 26, doused himself in petrol before setting
himself alight after police confiscated his produce for illegal vending. The
tragedy sparked mass riots which forced the head of state to flee the
country.
I would die
“I am prepared to ignite the fires of freedom
and set wheels of
confrontation in motion. I have a vision, an idea and
principles that I am
prepared to die for. I would rather die in the course
of realizing a noble
idea than just as a mortal human being. If I die in
pursuit of a noble idea,
the idea would remain as a living legend after me.
As MDC99 leader, I am
prepared to lead people in a revolutionary uprising
against dictatorship.
Even if it means I should get to the street alone, let
it be,” vowed
Sikhala.
He said another option to rid the nation of
dictatorship was through
resurrection of the army like what happened in
Egypt. “Service Chiefs could
issue as many threatening speeches to
democratic forces as they wished, but
the rank and file of the armed forces
was not that ignorant of reality as to
take ill-advised instructions from a
selfish command element. Low ranking
soldiers were reeling under grinding
poverty like any other struggling
masses and there is no way they would
implement orders to suppress mass
protests against tyranny,” he said.
.
Mugabe made it abundantly clear that Zimbabwe independence came out of the
barrel of the fun and would not be surrendered to political rivals through a
stroke of a pen at elections”.
Mutambara
Commenting on Arthur
Mutambara’s crumbling political fortunes, Sikhala said
the ousted leader of
the former MDC-M deserved the humiliation as he was
never MDC but a visitor
to the democratic movement party.
“Mutambara had never participated in MDC
politics. He was invited and came
to MDC as a visitor. No visitor should
expect permanent residence at the
house of his host. Mutambara was kicked
out because he overstayed his
invitation at MDC.
Good riddance”.
He
said even if MDC99 was desperate for supporters, Mutambara and Mugabe
would
never be accommodated in the democratic movement party at whatever
level.
Commenting on Ncube’s request for Mugabe to recall Mutambara from
government, Charamba said: “Welshman Ncube must deal with the political
problem in MDC arising from that party’s congress. Ncube recently
arm-twisted Capac into kicking out MDC members who opposed his assumption of
power to satisfy his political interests and he should not expect every
institution to similarly bend to his will. You don’t bring dirty political
hands for the president to wash them.”
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Fr Oskar Wermter SJ
Sunday,
06 February 2011 13:15
A hate-filled person says, “You must die so that I
can live.” This is
irreconcilable with the command, “Love your neighbour as
much as you love
yourself”.
The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that one day the
leaders of the majority decided,
“Since you do not tolerate us we cannot
tolerate you. There is no room for
both of us. Since we want to live, you
must die.” This infectious disease
called “violence” has never been removed
from our body politic.
It is humanly impossible simply to kill in cold blood,
executing the enemy
in a cool, clinical operation. You need to be in rage,
you need to feel
hatred and anger so as to be able to beat, hack, pierce a
human body. These
poor misguided young men who are hired to beat up and
torture their
neighbours and brothers, their own kind, can’t do this in cold
blood; they
first have to get into a collective rage by shouting “hondo,
hondo, hondo”
(“war, war, war”) before they can rape and torture their own
grandmothers as
class enemies and traitors.
Those white schoolboys who
were sent into the Rhodesian bush could hack to
death their black
compatriots because they had been brought up to regard
blacks as something
less than human. And in military training they had been
told they were the
vanguard of world communism. And even though they had
never seen a communist
they had been brainwashed to regard communists as
sheer sub-human
monsters.
They were able to kill black fellow citizens because they had been
told they
would rape their sisters and mothers in case of “majority
rule”.
You have to dehumanize the enemy and declare him mere vermin to make
the
killing easy. This is what hate speech does. Verbal violence prepares
the
way for physical violence, death and destruction.
Western and Eastern
Europeans as well as Americans (nominally Christian) in
two world wars did
not really want to shoot and kill and bayonet Germans to
death. But call
them demeaning names like “Boches” and “Krauts” and they are
no more than
cockroaches, so what is wrong with getting rid of them? The
German war
propaganda of course did the same, depriving the enemy of his
human
face.
A huge propaganda machine in Nazi-Germany depicted the Jewish people as
ugly, repulsive, sinister and malicious, dangerous and depraved. So when
they were “liquidated” with organizational perfection in their millions, the
reaction was with many “good riddance” as if a plague had been
contained.
Hate speech makes the monstrous normal and the outrageous
acceptable.
Goebbels, Minister for Propaganda (today the title would be
Minister of
Information), discovered broadcasting as vehicle for his
hysterical rhetoric
denouncing the Jews as unfit to live and used it with
lethal effect. Hate
speech brainwashed millions and made them ready for mass
murder.
The Nazi use of broadcasting was copied many times with equally
devastating
effect, for instance in Rwanda for the genocide of 1994.
You
do not kill fellow citizens, even if they happen to be of another
colour.
But call them a derogatory name like “mabhunu”, and shooting them
becomes
the right thing to do.
Our own propagandists call them “settlers”, a word
that seems harmless
enough. But analyze it carefully. What does it really
mean? What is implied?
It means these people are strangers, they don’t belong
to us, they have come
to take our land (xenophobia!), they are dangerous
land-grabbers, they have
lived very well at our expense, exploiting us,
let’s get rid of them, so we
can live as well as they did. Often hate speech
expresses fear and instils
fear, it seeks scapegoats and someone to blame
for one’s own failure.
An ideology of conflict and class war always needs
enemies or it runs out of
steam. Having an enemy is essential for the
struggle, ideological and
physical. If one enemy has been vanquished you
need to invent another, or
even exhume the dead one and kill him again. For
fanaticizing the crowds you
need monsters to hate. The colonialists and
imperialists, the exploiters and
bloodsuckers cannot be relegated to the
museum of history. They are still
needed. How else can the revolutionaries
justify their violence? The
leaders need them to blame for their failures,
abusing them with foul
language.
We hurt people not just by beating them
with fists or stabbing them with
knives. Every kind of creature “can be
tamed and has been tamed by the human
species, but no human being can tame
the tongue. It is a restless evil, full
of deadly poison” (James 3: 7 – 8).
We all know how deeply people can be
hurt by poisonous tongues.
Hate
speech need not always be wild and violent, it can express contempt in
a
subtle manner. A misogynist speaks of “her ladyship” to ridicule a woman.
Sarcasm cuts deep and is not forgotten.
If a woman cannot defend herself
against a man’s physical violence she may
spit verbal venom, which enrages
him all the more.
For Jesus hate speech is tantamount to killing( Matthew 5:
21 – 22). A name
stands for the person. A bad name destroys that person. A
mocking tone,
taunting language is severing the ties of our common humanity.
It is,
incidentally, also an insult against the Creator in whose image that
person
was formed.
Vigil supporters – like people all
over the world – have been transfixed by the drama in
Suddenly the absurdity of Mugabe was
thrown into clear focus – 87 this month yet seeking re-election for another
term: another botoxed octogenarian with dyed hair unable to loosen his claws on
power, even to caress his gold bars . . .
Vigil supporter Peter Chareka told
us how he was at the
The Vigil was
well-attended despite the absence of a group of supporters from
As we mark the
2nd anniversary of the formation of the ‘government of national
unity’ we were encouraged to see a note of honesty at last from the MDC’s
Co-minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makoni. Revealing the impotence of the MDC
in government, she said ‘most times you write letters but nothing happens . . .
‘ (see: http://www.swradioafrica.com/news040211/mugscanstop040211.htm).
Other ponts
·
We were joined by Italian freelance journalist Max Santalucia. He has sent us a link to his article about
the Vigil which appears in French on a blog of the international news site
·
Today we
were visited by members of the Zimbabwe Diaspora Focus Group: Thamsanga Zhou,
Lucia Dube and Martin Chinyanga.
Thamsanga addressed the Vigil stressing how important it was to attend
the Vigil and that all Zimbabweans in the diaspora should work together for an
end to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and for free and fair
elections.
·
Have a
look at our new website www.zimvigiltv.com. Past video diaries have been
uploaded on the ‘Vigil Diary’ link including key events such as the
demonstration when Zuma visited the South African Embassy, the Vigil’s
8th anniversary, the protest at Lancaster House etc. The latest video
diaries are uploaded on the home page.
·
Sue Toft
on our front desk says a man who dropped by told her that he had met Mugabe as
an 8 year old when his parents went to Harrods department store. He said; ‘I
shook his hand but now I wish I had kicked him in the shins’. If the EU lifts
sanctions this month he may yet have the chance to do so….
For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/.
For the latest ZimVigil TV programme check http://www.zimvigiltv.com/.
FOR THE RECORD: 113
signed the
register.
EVENTS AND NOTICES:
·
The Restoration of Human Rights in
Zimbabwe (ROHR) is
the Vigil’s partner organisation based in
·
·
ROHR
·
ROHR
·
Vigil Facebook
page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts.
·
Vigil Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil.
·
‘Through the
Darkness’, Judith
Todd’s acclaimed account of the rise of Mugabe.
To receive a copy by post in the
UK please email confirmation of your order and postal address to
ngwenyasr@yahoo.co.uk and 0send
a cheque for £10 payable to “Budiriro Trust” to Emily Chadburn, 15 Burners
Close, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 0QA. All proceeds go to the Budiriro Trust
which provides bursaries to needy A Level students in
·
Workshops aiming to engage African
men on HIV testing and other sexual health issues. Organised by the Terrence Higgins
Trust (www.tht.org.uk). Please contact the
co-ordinator
Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil,
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429
In our November 2010 newletter, we included a statement from Sharon regarding her eviction from Hwange Safari Lodge. We are now pleased to be able to report that we have been advised of some positive new developments with one of the existing lodges in Hwange, and all going well we hope to be able to report in our next newsletter that this is where Sharon Pincott will soon be operating out of. Our thanks for now go to those from Dawn Properties (a company, it should be clarified, that is not owned or controlled by African Sun) – soon to commence building a new luxury camp on the Hwange Estate, which they will manage themselves – who reaffirmed their support of Sharon’s work and access to land where these elephants roam, so that her crucial long-term monitoring of Zimbabwe’s flagship herd can continue.
We trust that everyone will support those conservation-minded safari lodges that support our long-term wildlife warriors. Without our dedicated conservationists on the ground, complementing the efforts of the Parks Authority, there would certainly be less wildlife for us all to enjoy. We also encourage you to read Sharon ’s latest blog story. Go to www.sharonpincott.com and take the link on the home-page to her Getaway blog. There is something for everyone to think about in this short Christmas story - “What will you do in 2011 to make a difference?”
By Pardon
Kangara
The reasonable way forward is for the MDC to start articulating and
aggressively pursuing a different strategy. We have all seen that we do not
necessarily change the behavior of a dictator and the deranged Zanu
followers by signing agreements and sitting down to talk and run government
together.
In some previous articles on this paper, a couple of people
sounded some
doubts about Mbeki and SADC on the unity government discussions
and the
subsequent GPA. A benefit of the doubt is what a lot of people gave
the
GPA.
The MDC leadership must recognize that Mugabe, Zanu PF, SADC and
Thabo Mbeki
and sadly Mr. Jacob Zuma have engaged the MDC to exercise in a
dead walk by
implementing the GPA. All thriving world political democracies
know that
this is the naked truth. The GPA at its best is only designed to
slow down
Mugabe and Zanu PF. The GPA is not insulated from failure. It will
have been
successful if Mugabe was not part of the equation. The low
expectations of
the GPA is the reason why targeted sanctions against Mugabe
and his cronies
have not been lifted. Its success rate is the reason why it
is difficult to
fund this GPA government through any loans. At local and
national level, the
GPA has alleviated a lot of suffering but not all.
Internationally, it is
considered a doomed marriage of convenience.
Can
anybody show the Zimbabwean people any leader or any group from the UN,
AU,
EU or Asian bodies that is willing to put their neck out and speak
against
Mugabe? Zimbabweans’ wishes could be taken seriously when we have at
least a
couple of noteworthy African leaders that speak openly to condemn
Mugabe’s
divide and rule tactics. Only European leaders and the US are
considered
active on this.
The parties which the MDC are expecting to apply pressure to
Mugabe and Zanu
PF have never been listened to by Mugabe and Zanu PF and I
frankly don't
think that the old man’s mentality will change. Case in point
is the most
recent accreditation of Mugabe’s appointed Ambassador
Phelekezela Mphoko by
Jacob Zuma. Jacob Zuma does not have the stamina
needed to cull Mugabe’s
continual disregard of the GPA and the wishes of the
Zimbabwean people. Any
impartiality from Zuma is gone down under the drain
by his recent action.
Previous Julius Sello Malema’s utterances clearly make
Zuma’s position and
allegiance clear. If Zuma’s top election supporter can
say it openly, then
what do they say in secret? Remember Thabo Mbeki! His
hands were tied. And
so are Zuma’s hands.
The MDC should not be played
for novices. If one knows their enemy and your
own limitations, one should
make strategic and consistent mechanisms and act
in a way that will ensure
none or limited damages inflicted by the enemy.
The GPA has not turned Zanu
PF officials into peaceful politicians. The
peaceful ones do not control
Zanu PF agenda.
Zanu PF has made a calculation that if they do not force new
elections now
but wait until a new constitution is in place, they will lose.
Zanu PF’s
cruel old strategy becomes the best thing for Zanu PF’s fortunes,
so they
have started the intimidation and persecution of all MDC supporters.
Zanu PF
calculates that if they hold elections in a highly fear-infused
atmosphere,
they will win or at least have a chance to rig the elections
again. The
2011 election verbiage is their survival strategy
politically.
Where are the new laws that prohibit intimidation of voters and
place
restrictions on unethical electioneering? Where are the independent
election
observers? Where is the level campaign field? Where is the
independent,
unbiased and equal access to the public media? Where is the
unrestricted
access to the rural areas? Where is the electoral body that is
not beholden
to RG Mugabe and Zanu PF? How can any election conducted under
the current
atmosphere be certified as the people’s wishes? Rural people are
Zimbabweans
too. They should not be scared of the chiefs and the village
headmen.
The MDC needs to work tirelessly and quickly at being a party with
the
capacity to educate, protect campaign, win and govern at any moment.
They
must fireproof all political and governing strategies for any reason,
season
and moment. If the CMDC or MDC-N pulls out as per the purported
standing
threat to derail the GPA regardless of a new constitution or not
according
to the Fingaz, a new election may be the only way out of the GPA.
The MDC
has got the people’s goodwill already and the people’s support. It
is
important to not take the people’s vote for granted. They must ask for it
and make a plan to get all the votes they can get. They cannot rely on the
international community’s voice to stop Zanu PF’s strategies for survival at
the polls. MDC officials must pay attention to Zanu PF’s threats and begin
to take them seriously and quickly counter and dismiss all falsehoods. The
MDC leadership should not allow the debacles of 2008 to sweep them off
balance. The ordinary Zimbabwean is very aware of what a perpetuation of
Zanu PF rule and terror will do to the country. What they are looking for is
a strong hand that can take them out of the Zanu PF mire into a place where
they can stand.
By Sanderson N
Makombe
Asked by Lance Guma of SW Radio about the outstanding GPA issues
regarding
Roy Bennet, Tomana and Gono, Welshman Ncube had this to say "We
don’t see
why the important business of the State should be interrupted by
such
trivial matters such as how this one should be in this position and
that one
should not be in that position’ ’To the esteemed professor, the
issues
raised by MDC-T about the aforesaid were so trivial to warrant any
serious
attention. How ironic then that when the next round of negotiations
on the
full implementation of the GPA commences, Welshman Ncube’s name will
appear
alongside Roy Bennet,Tomana and Bennet as an outstanding issue.
Trivial is
it professor?
The debacle over Ncube’s ascendancy and
subsequent request to be sworn in as
Deputy Prime Minister exposes how
shoddy the drafters of the GPA and
Constitutional Amendment N0 19 were in
not anticipating such arising
challenges. These documents provide ample
academic discourse on how not to
write a constitution.
President Mugabe
stated in Ethiopia that there are legal issues arising from
the Ncube’s
demand to be sworn in.Mugabe could have added a more plausible
legal reason
for not swearing Ncube. This is the fact that Ncube’s
presidency of the
MDC-N/M is a legally contested issue. Former chairman
Joubert Mudzumwe and
other former disgruntled national council members
lodged a legal challenge
in the High Court to the legitimacy of the congress
that elevated Ncube to
the presidency. As it is, the logical thing will be
for Mugabe to wait until
a determination is made on the court case. That
might take forever as
evidenced before. Like Bennet before, Mugabe has
always stated that Bennet
cannot be sworn in because he has a criminal case
pending, despite the fact
that he was acquitted by the High Court. The
matter still remains on appeal.
It will be absurd if Ncube is sworn in,
then subsequently loses the court
case as that would require him to resign
the post and Mutambara be
reinstated.
The Ncube information machinery has been quick to cry foul and
try to allude
to collusion between ZANU PF and MDC-T in blocking Ncube’s
ascendancy. The
most telling falsehoods has been their attempt to justify
Mutambara’s
recalling based on the reshuffle done by MDC-T last year on its
ministries.
Am sure Ncube is aware that the appointment, deployment and
reshuffling of
ministers is expressly provided for in the constitution as
amended by
amendment No 19.Sec 20.1.6 (7) states ‘Ministers and Deputy
Ministers may be
relieved of their duties only after consultation among the
leaders of all
the political parties participating in the Inclusive
Government. In addition
it is provided on Sec 20.1.10 that ‘In the event of
any vacancy arising in
respect of posts referred to in clauses 20.1.6 and
20.1.9 (presidents, vice
presidents, prime minister, deputy prime ministers,
ministers and deputy
ministers) , such vacancy shall be filled by a nominee
of the Party which
held that position prior to the vacancy
arising’.
In other words Tsvangirai needed only to consult with Mugabe
and Mutambara
to reshuffle ministries under his party and the prerogative of
nominating a
replacement remained with him.Tellingly,no mention is made of
the process of
replacing a principal to the agreement except as to say that
if a vacancy
arises, it shall be filled in by a party nominee. If the office
of the
deputy prime minister representing MDC-N/M falls vacant, they are
free to
choose who ever they want to fill that vacancy. The debate is
whether the
same office is currently vacant.
There are clear cut
circumstances in which Mutambara could cease to be a
deputy prime minister
without complication. This include, if he decides to
resign his post in
government (as alluded to by Mugabe), or if Mutambara
ceases to be a member
of MDC-N/M, either by resigning as a member of that
party or if expelled.
Furthermore, if the office he occupies becomes ‘vacant’,
the process of
swearing in a replacement becomes just a formality. An office
becomes vacant
if the incumbent dies, is incapacitated or otherwise (this is
not
exhaustive) . The constitution on Sec 31E states that the offices of
Vice
Presidents, Ministers and Deputy Ministers will become ‘vacant’ if the
incumbent is fired by the president or if he resigns. This section equally
applies to Prime Ministers and their deputies. All the above scenarios do
not currently apply to Mutambara in that he has not be fired, neither has he
resigned. The interpretation of this clause must also be read taking into
account amendment No 19, with the effect that the president may not be in a
position to fire the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Ministers as these
are direct nominees of their parties which he has no veto over. Could the
office of the deputy prime minister which Mutambara occupies be construed as
‘vacant’ by virtue of change of leadership of MDC-N/M?
The GPA and
amendment N0 19 do not state that appointment to the office of
the deputy
prime minister is consummate with one’s political position he
holds in their
political party. In other words, you don’t have to be
president of MDC N/M,
to be their nominee for deputy prime minister. Sec
20.1.6 states at ‘(4)
that ‘there shall be two (2) Deputy Prime Ministers,
one (1) from MDC-T and
one (1) from the MDC-Construed purposefully, this
section makes it a
prerogative of the two MDC parties which person they
nominate to the office
of the deputy prime minister. The crucial question of
construction is
whether in exercising that prerogative, the same parties
have a power of
recall of the same nominated persons in the event of
leadership change or
when the party sees fit? If the nominating party has a
power of recall, that
would mean that the current office of the deputy prime
minister representing
MDC-N/M is vacant and therefore they have the
prerogative of forwarding
Ncube, with Mugabe just formally appointing and
administering the oath of
office.
Construed narrowly, there is no provision in the constitution for
a power of
recall, meaning Ncube has no legal basis for recalling Mutambara
from a
state office. However, if the GPA and amendment No 19 are read in the
spirit
of the GPA, then for political expediency, Mugabe ought to swear in
Ncube as
deputy prime minister.
The professor has to convince
Mutambara to resign his government post. If
Mutambara refuses, then Ncube
has the option of instituting a party
disciplinary process against him and
ultimately fire him. This is the path
they adopted regarding the so called
rebel MPs. Ncube must have known better
that a court challenge plays
directly into the hands of Mugabe and must have
set down with Mudzumwe and
Co to avoid that direction. There is no need to
hide behind ethnic politics
or use tribalism as an excuse for political
misjudgement. This is the same
misjudgement that Ncube displayed when he
purportedly fired Morgan
Tsvangirai and directed Chimanikire to seek a court
order to that effect.
The court case failed and they did not appeal. This
makes their claim to be
the original MDC laughable.
Your in-laws down in South Africa may not be
impressed that you have forced
yourself as an outstanding GPA
issue.
The writer can be contacted at smakombe@btinternet.com
By
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Policy Analyst, London 06/01/11
Of all public
policies adopted in post-independent Zimbabwe, indigenization
as presently
formulated is the most harmful, partisan and counter-productive
of them all.
It is very regrettable that selfish political expediency and
greed rather
than sound economic principles are the driving force in the
implementation
of the controversial piece of legislation.
Although, public policy is
defined by Charles L. Cochran and Eloise F.
Malone as ‘political decisions
for implementing programs to achieve societal
goals’ (Public Policy
Perspectives and Choices, New York: McGraw-Hill,
1995), Zimbabwe’s
indigenization policy is pursuing other objectives.
Half-baked
policy
The ongoing wanton vindictive parceling out or the threatened
take-over of
other people’s businesses, investments, and valuable assets by
Zanu-pf
activists is not achieving societal but short-term partisan goals.
The
half-baked policy is actually damaging the economy and will have serious
implications for the future of the country at a time when it is slowly
recovering from implosion.
For example, the tourism sector and the
fishing industry in Kariba were said
to be in panic this week after Zanu-pf
supporters and the Affirmative Action
Group (AAG) allegedly threatened to
take over some foreign-owned hotels,
harbours and fisheries in the resort
town (Newsday, 04/02/11). We have also
learnt that Germany has lodged an
official complaint with the government
over attempts by some Zanu-pf
officials in Masvingo to seize a conservancy
owned by one of its nationals
(Financial Gazette, 04/02/11).
Throwing spanners in the works
With
high levels of unemployment this is not the time to throw spanners into
the
works but of putting heads together to solve problems facing the
country.
Unfortunately indigenization has emerged to be a problem in itself
rather
than a solution because it has proved to be shameful legalized
looting.
While blacks were marginalized and will probably remain that way
for
sometime to come, the current indigenization policy is an ill-conceived,
corrupt and highly politicized campaign that is deliberately targeted at
settling scores than redressing colonial imbalances.
An important
economic indicator of Zimbabwe’s compromised industrial
performance is the
reported ‘tremendous decline in cargo’ by the National
Railways of Zimbabwe
(NRZ) from 18 million tonnes shipped at the height of
Zimbabwe’s economic
boom in 1998 to 2 million tonnes last year (The
Financial Gazette,
04/02/11). The government-owned rail company has been
adversely affected by
a fall in industrial output resulting in NRZ’s
headcount at its Bulawayo
headquarters dropping to 2,000 in 2010 from 8,000.
It is also reported that
the company has been a victim of vandalism.
Closed-door
meeting
Even more upsetting are reports alleging that a closed door
meeting which
was attended by Vice President John Nkomo is believed to have
given a green
light for the complete takeover of sugar conglomerate Hippo
Valley and
Triangle and parcel out the land to indigenous farmers who are
Zanu-pf
supporters (The Zimbabwean, 05/02/11).
Given the growing
number of failures of some of the indigenized companies,
it is time
government took stock of the negative impact the policy is having
on foreign
investment and the wider society. It does not make sense to
sacrifice the
country’s valuable resources in order to win a vote here and
there.
At a time when Zimbabwe is sitting on a US$6.9 billion debt
and government
is unable to attract sustainable lines of credit let alone
direct foreign
investment, the mining sector is facing an uncertain future
over the 51%
indigenisation slice. Zanu-pf activist, Saviour Kasukuwere has
reportedly
declared: ‘Currently work is at an advanced stage to finalise
consultations
on the mining sector with a view to publish the gazette for
the sector not
later than the end of February 2011’(TalkZimbabwe,
04/02/11).
Capital Flight
There are concerns that the empowerment
regulations could trigger
expropriation of properties which could result in
massive capital flight
(The Independent, 03/02/11).
As said by
Zanu-pf politburo member, Oppah Muchinguri, ‘Zanu-pf is now full
of crooks’
who are abusing their positions to amass wealth through
corruption and
under-hand dealings (The Zimbabwean, 05/02/11). She
reportedly said that
most of the Zanu-pf officials and ministers ‘are liars
who are misleading
President Mugabe that all is well from the cell level
going upwards yet on
the ground its is disastrous’.
Instead of creating an ideal investment
climate like other countries are
doing, some of the partners in the
coalition government look determined to
scare investors with their political
rhetoric. Zimbabwe needs to emulate
best practices from developed countries
rather than be obsessed with
frustrating investors for cheap
votes.
Britain’s Silicon Valley
For example, in November last
year, British Prime Minister set out plans to
create a hi-tech hub in east
London to rival California’s Silicon Valley and
had already attracted
commitments to invest from companies including
Facebook, Google, Cisco,
Intel and British Telecom (DailyMail, 04/11/10).
Nothing stops Zimbabwe
with its enviable sunshine and good infrastructure
from developing it’s own
Silicon Valley in Ruwa or Norton resulting in
incredible development all
round in terms of increased employment and
industrial output.
Entice
British investors
Similarly, countries which Zimbabwean leaders like to
visit on unconfirmed
medical treatment have managed to entice British
investors in the form of
universities which have set up satellite campuses
on their territories with
great success. Examples include China, Malaysia
and the Middle East. British
Universities are said to be earning an
estimated £2 billion a year by
awarding degrees to hundreds of thousands of
students, most of whom never
set foot in Britain (TimesOnline,
24/09/09).
The campuses offer identical syllabuses to those in Britain
and teaching is
in English. The University of Nottingham’s campus in Ningbo,
China had 3,500
international and 57 British students on its roll, while
Bolton, Middlesex
and Heriot-Watt all have satellites in the United Arab
Emirates with brand
new campuses and high tech facilities. Given
Zimbabweans’ desire for
learning and acquiring good qualifications, we
should be seen to be enticing
for example the University of London or
Manchester to open campuses wherever
they want in our country.
Key to
success
The key to all these success stories is a stable political
environment
guided by a responsible government and not a scorched earth
policy.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com