http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 11:46
BY PATRICE
MAKOVA
THE inquest into the mysterious death of retired General
Solomon Mujuru
opened last week with much anticipation from family members
and the public
that finally there could be answers to what happened to the
country’s most
decorated soldier.
However, the inquest has so far
revealed conflicting statements from
witnesses, and exposed the police for
literally sleeping on their job at a
time they were supposed to be
protecting Mujuru.
Legal experts say nothing earth-shattering should
be expected from the
inquest as it was simply an inquiry into the cause of
an unexpected death.
Harare lawyer Rodgers Matsikidze said an inquest was
different from a
criminal investigation or trial where there is an accused
person.
“There is no suspect in an inquest,” he said. “It is simply
an attempt to
understand the circumstances under which a person would have
died. Certain
information may emerge during the inquest which can later be
used as a basis
for criminal investigations.”
Mujuru’s inquest,
which is being presided over by magistrate Walter
Chikwana, has so far
raised more questions than answers with suspicions
still lingering in the
minds of many because of lack of clear account of
what really happened on
the fateful day on August 16 last year.
The inquest was told that
Mujuru was protected by three police officers and
private security guards,
but Constable Obert Mark admitted that he together
with Constable Lazarus
Handikatari went to sleep at 9pm, leaving Augustinos
Chinyoka on duty only
to wake up at 2am when the farm house was ablaze.
Surprisingly, the
police officers did not have communication radios or
airtime to call for
assistance in case of emergency. Mujuru’s family lawyer
Thakor Kewada
suggested the police could have left the General to die as
they opted to run
three kilometers to the farm compound to get information
on the location of
his bedroom, instead of smashing windows to try to rescue
him.
Even Vice-President Joice Mujuru failed to understand how
they could not
have known the location of the bedroom, considering they had
been at the
farm for six weeks.
Private security guard Clemence
Runhare said he heard the sound of gunshots
on the night of Mujuru’s death
and assumed that they were coming from
poachers at a nearby
farm.
He also testified that Mujuru was sober and accompanied by a
male person
when he arrived at the farm, but the police officers disputed
this saying
the General appeared drunk and was alone in his
car.
Runhare’s account was corroborated by Rosemary Shoti, a maid at
the
farmhouse who also heard gunshots, but was told by Mark that it was
sounds
of asbestos exploding.
Shoti, who wept while giving
evidence, also revealed that Mujuru was not
happy with the police officers
guarding the farm and wanted them to be
replaced.
The inquest was
told of the mysterious appearance of the bunch of keys found
in Mujuru’s
bedroom. The late General had told Shoti that he had left them
in Harare.
His car was also parked on the veranda side of the house which
was
uncharacteristic of him.
Shoti also ruled out the possibility that a
candle could have started the
fire testifying that Mujuru did not carry
matches on that day. This is
contrary to an initial theory by the police
that suggested that a burning
candle started the fire as there was no
electricity on that day.
It remains to be seen what the remaining 22
witnesses will testify this week
and whether any of them will provide a clue
as to what really happened to
Mujuru.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012
11:36
BY OUR STAFF
CIVIL servants have warned that government
operations, including offices,
schools and hospitals will come to a
standstill from tomorrow as they embark
on a one-week strike to press for
better salaries.
MDC-T said yesterday it feared that Zanu PF had
hijacked the strike and was
using some union leaders to attack the party and
some of its ministers
instead of addressing the concerns of the civil
servants as a united
government.
Apex Council chairperson,
Tendayi Chikowore, said civil servants were
pressing ahead with the five-day
strike despite overtures made by the
government for a meeting on Wednesday
this week.
“It is up to the government to see how the damage can be
averted, but as far
as we are concerned, our position has not changed and
everything will be at
a standstill come Monday,” she
said.
Chikowore denied that unions were being influenced to go on
strike by Zanu
PF. She said the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) where
she is the
president, had been calling for strikes in the past including one
in 2008
which led massive victimisation of teachers by Zanu PF supporters
and
officials. “As a trade union, we are looking at the GNU as a whole and
not
at Zanu PF or MDC,” said Chikowore.
Zimbabwe Nurses
Association (ZNA) president Regina Smith said health workers
would also join
their counterparts in the civil service unless the Health
Services Board
addresses their demands for an increase in salaries,
housing, transport and
other allowances.
Chikowore said civil servants had exhausted all
channels to have their
grievances addressed and accused the Minister of
Public Service, Lucia
Matibenga, a former trade unionist herself, of
snubbing them.
“Matibenga is supposed to be a bridge between us and
the GNU (government of
national unity). We are supposed to speak through
her, but it has become
impossible to communicate with her,” said
Chikowore.
“She does not even bother to advise us on what is
happening with regards to
our welfare, leaving us with no option but to go
on strike.” Chikowore said
Matibenga should not be offended by criticism as
it was not a personal
attack on her but in her capacity as minister
responsible for the welfare of
civil servants.
Matibenga declined
to speak to The Standard yesterday. “I am busy, I can’t
speak to you,” was
all she could say before ending the conversation.
Economist Washington
Mehlomakhulu said while it was difficult to quantify
how much the economy
would suffer if the strike went ahead, the action could
be detrimental to
the country.
“This might hurt investor confidence, as investors will pause
and wait to
see what happens,” he said.
Mehlomakhulu said the
social impact would be felt immediately as social
services will be hampered
by the strike. He said they would be delays in
licensing and approval of
projects among other issues and this could harm
the country’s fragile
economy.
“The issue of wages is a reflection of the health of the
economy; the
government can only pay what it has,” he said. “For civil
servants to get
the money they are demanding, the economy should be growing
at double digit
numbers, but at the moment growth is between six and nine
percent, depending
on who you speak to.”
Economist John Robertson
described the wage demands as extravagant.
“They are demanding a
doubling of their salaries, yet already these take up
more than half of the
government’s revenue,” he said. “Then it means their
wages would consume the
entire budget.”
Robertson said a survey conducted by the World Bank
and the International
Monetary Fund revealed that Zimbabwe had one of the
highest ratios of civil
servants to revenue generation. Only Swaziland,
Lesotho and South Africa had
higher ratios.
But George Nkiwane,
who heads a faction of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU), said
while they appreciated that the government had no money,
they were worried
about its expenditure patterns and priorities.
“The government can
pay better, but the problem is that they seem to get
their priorities
wrong,” he admonished. “They are buying new cars for
themselves and look at
the allowances they gave each other as MPs.”
Nkiwane said it was
important for the government to review its expenditure
patterns. Workers are
demanding across-the-board pay rises including a raise
from US$200 to US$538
a month for the lowest-paid government workers,
medical insurance and an
allowance for rural-based workers.
Don’t blame MDC-T or
Matibenga, says Mwonzora
MDC-T spokesman Douglous Mwonzora said
it would be wrong to blame his party
or Matibenga for the problem as the
issue of the conditions of civil
servants has been a long-standing issues
since the inception of the GNU in
2009.
He said the principals,
particularly President Robert Mugabe had met
representatives of civil
servants and made certain promises which had not
been fulfilled. “Instead of
trying to resolve these issues about civil
servants, Zanu PF is now taking
the opportunity to denigrate Matibenga and
MDC,” said
Mwonzora.
“It is also trying to blame the impasse on MDC, yet it is
principally Zanu
PF people and sympathisers who are not fully remitting
proceeds from
diamonds into treasury.”
He said MDC-T had also noted that
some representatives of the workers were
taking the opportunity to settle
old trade union scores with Matibenga.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 11:45
BY NUNURAI
JENA
ZANU PF factions were by last night still battling for the control of
Mashonaland West province with unconfirmed reports saying John Mafa was
leading in elections to chose a new provincial chairman.
Sources
told The Standard that Mafa, who is a former provincial chairman,
had won in
Chegutu, Kariba and was leading in Kadoma ahead of his three
rivals; acting
chairman, Reuben Marumahoko, Zvimba South Legislator, Walter
Chidakwa and
war veteran Moffat Marashwa.
The party’s politburo member Olivia
Muchena, who was presiding over the
elections last night, said that results
were not yet out as voting and
counting was still ongoing by
7pm.
“I am in the middle of overseeing the elections now, but
everything has gone
on well so far,” she said. There were still five
districts to fight for,
namely Hurungwe, Makonde, Zvimba, Chegutu and
Kadoma.
Zanu PF sources likened the election to a referendum on which
faction was
more popular among the three in the province. Marumahoko is said
to be
backed by the party’s national political commissar, Webster Shamu,
with
Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Ignatius
Chombo
supporting Chidakwa.
Mafa is said to be backed by politburo member
Nathan Shamuyarira and
businessman Phillip Chiyangwa, who was barred from
contesting.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:07
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC has launched a complaint with
the
Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) against police
brutality and unlawful interference in its political
activities.
This follows the arrest of 50 MDC-T youths ahead of the
launch of the “Free
Solomon Madzore Campaign” in Bulawayo a fortnight ago.
Madzore, who is the
chairperson of MDC-T youth assembly, has been
languishing at Chikurubi
Maximum Prison together with seven other party
members after they were
arrested in October last year on allegations of
killing a police officer,
Petros Mutedza, in Glen View.
Police
last week sealed all roads leading into Bulawayo’s central business
district
(CBD) from high- density suburbs, searching all vehicles before
arresting
hordes of MDC-T supporters who were getting into town for the
peaceful
protest.
The party has called on Jomic to act on what they referred
to as police’s
“unbecoming behaviour”. “We do trust that your organ will
treat this matter
with the seriousness and urgency it deserves and
ultimately bring this long
running madness to an end,” said MDC-T youth
assembly chairman for Bulawayo,
Bekithemba Nyathi, in the letter of
complaint.
“We condemn in the strongest terms, criminal activity by
members of the
uniformed police and demand that such criminal elements be
brought to book.
“Further, we condemn police disrespect for the courts, for
there is in
existence a court order issued by the Bulawayo High Court in
2011, barring
the police from interfering with our lawful political
activities in our
Bulawayo offices.”
Efforts to get a comment
from Jomic spokesperson Joram Nyathi were fruitless
yesterday. Jomic,
established under the Global Political Agreement (GPA),
receives reports and
complaints in respect of any issue related to the
implementation,
enforcement and execution of the agreement.
It also serves as a
catalyst in creating and promoting an atmosphere of
mutual trust and
understanding between the parties. The committee is
co-chaired by
representatives from Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:04
BY OUR
STAFF
MDC99 leader Job Sikhala says his party will go ahead with
Egyptian-style
protests aimed at forcing President Robert Mugabe to step
down before the
next elections are held.
Sikhala said Mugabe was
presiding over a failed inclusive government and
accused some of his Cabinet
ministers of amassing personal wealth at the
expense of the
majority.
He said MDC99 was rolling out demonstrations throughout the
country in a bid
to stop the holding of elections before the implementation
of meaningful
political reforms and the “departure” of
Mugabe.
Sikhala said there was no point in holding elections now as
Zanu PF
officials were repeatedly saying there was no way the party would
cede power
through the pen (ballot box).
“We are going to deliver
a political blow to Mugabe which will see him
leaving power before elections
are held,” he said. “Our demonstrations are
receiving a lot of sympathy
throughout the country because many people have
realised that since
independence, any call for elections when Mugabe is
still in power, is a
call to violence and intimidation.”
On December 12 2011, Sikhala was
briefly arrested and released after he,
party supporters and executive
members held a protest march demanding that
President Mugabe must
resign.
The former MDC legislator for St Mary’s and his supporters
were marching
towards President Mugabe’s Munhumutapa building offices,
carrying placards
with messages that demanded the immediate resignation of
Mugabe, when armed
police pounced on them.
Sikhala accused some
cabinet ministers, including his former MDC colleagues
now in the coalition
government, of creating wealth for themselves through
corrupt
deals.
“You can’t go into bed with Zanu PF without compromising
yourself,” he said,
referring to his former colleagues in the then
opposition MDC who are now
part of the inclusive
government.
“They are now engrossed in cutting deals for themselves
which has made them
super rich overnight. They are eating from a poisoned
chalice.” Sikhala said
the GNU had failed to make meaningful political
reforms, save for the
licensing of new newspapers such as
NewsDay.
“Prime Minister (Morgan) Tsvangirai who won the March 2008
Presidential
elections is virtually powerless,” he said. “Instead of
spearheading policy
change, he is a mere spectator in government as he is
overshadowed by Mugabe
and can’t even make Zanu PF ministers attend the
Council of Ministers which
he chairs.”
Sikhala said a majority of
Zimbabweans continue to wallow in poverty as the
GNU has failed to turn
around the economy by creating jobs and attracting
investment, while civil
servants continue to be paid “slave wages”.
“The country is now
surviving on barter trade. Even the likes of me, a whole
political leader,
continue to struggle to make a living because the
inclusive government has
done little for the country for the past three
years,” he
said.
THE SADC DEMOCRATIC FRONT
Meanwhile, Sikhala
said opposition political parties in southern Africa have
agreed to form the
Sadc Democratic Front (SDF) whose major objective would
be to consolidate
efforts to introduce meaningful political reforms
especially in countries
where there was limited democracy and good
governance.
He said
the parties which include South Africa’s Congress of the People
(Cope), met
in South Africa recently and agreed to run parallel programmes
whenever Sadc
heads of state and government were meeting for their
traditional
summits.
The front, to be based in South Africa, will have structures
similar to
those of the Gaborone-based Sadc secretariat. “The Sadc
Democratic Front
will counter the false solidarity among some of the
dictators in the region
who want to hold on to power at all cost,” said
Sikhala.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:02
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
HAVING enjoyed relative peace for the past three years,
Zimbabwe is slowly
sliding back into political mayhem that existed just
prior to the formation
of the coalition government, political analysts have
warned.
The government of national unity (GNU) formed in 2009 ended a
wave of
political violence that was characterised by murder, kidnappings,
torture
and massive displacements of people.
Political analysts
last week warned that recent running battles between
police and vendors in
Harare, arrests and torture of MDC-T activists across
the country and Zanu
PF’s continued reluctance to implement the roadmap to
free and fair
elections were tell-tale signs of imminent political chaos.
This
comes as a Zanu PF-aligned militia group, Chipangano, appears to be
reclaiming the violent political space it occupied in 2008 by continuing to
terrorise suspected supporters of MDC-T with impunity.
The MDC-T
has pointed a finger at state security agents, particularly the
police, who
they accuse of working in cahoots with Zanu PF to decimate its
structures.
Zanu PF has also roped in the state media which has
intensified vitriol
against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his party,
in violation of the
Global Political Agreement (GPA).
Through the
use of war veterans, Zanu PF has tried to derail the
constitution-making
process so that elections are held under the current
supreme law which
favours President Robert Mugabe. The party has however,
denied fermenting
violence or disrupting the constitution-making process.
MDC-T deputy
spokesperson Thabitha Khumalo said the escalation of violence
in rural
areas, arrests of her party activists and MPs as well as the
harassment of
ordinary people by security agents were enough indicators that
the country
was sliding into another crisis of the 2008 magnitude.
MDC-T has
alleged that at least 200 of its supporters were murdered by Zanu
PF militia
and state security agents during the 2008 elections, forcing
Tsvangirai to
boycott a run-off.
“This is how it all started in 2008,” said
Khumalo. “They (Zanu PF) want to
win these coming elections by hook and
crook and they will not spare anyone
who stands in their
way.”
Phillip Pasirayi of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC)
says the current
tense atmosphere was being caused by the fact that
political parties had
entered into an election mode.
He says the
continued incarceration of MDC-T activists, including the party’s
youth
assembly chairperson, Solomon Madzore, was meant to paralyse the party
ahead
of polls.
“One of Zanu PF’s poll strategies is to slow down the MDC-T
momentum,
especially the work by the MDC-T youth assembly, to mobilise young
and
first-time voters,” said Pasirayi. “It is for this reason that Madzore
will
not be released anytime soon because Zanu PF is panicking and wants the
MDC-T to be pre-occupied with these court battles and not to mobilise people
to vote.”
Without institutional and security sector reforms, says
Pasirayi, the next
elections will not deliver any change. He said the
Southern African
Development Community (Sadc)-brokered elections roadmap
must address these
issues and include a power-transfer mechanism to ensure
that the winner is
allowed to form the next government.
“Without
these reforms, Zimbabwe will remain an example of an
electoral-authoritarian
political system, where elections are held for
self-legitimating purposes
for incumbents and not to bring about change and
not to deepen democracy,”
said Pasirayi.
Analysts say Zimbabwe is fast approaching a “tipping
point” as political
parties violate the spirit of political co-existence and
tolerance
encouraged by the GPA as they prepare for
elections.
Alexander Noyes, a research assistant at the Africa Centre
for Strategic
Studies, foresees a major crisis if elections were to be held
without
security sector reforms.
“Zimbabwe is fast approaching a
dangerous tipping point,” said Noyes. “If a
political settlement with
Zimbabwe’s security chiefs is not negotiated
before the vote, Mugabe will,
no doubt, rely on them to once again begin a
campaign of intimidation and
violence, leading to sham elections that could
precipitate a regional
crisis.”
But Khumalo said MDC-T will insist on security sector
reforms before any
elections to avoid a scenario whereby Mugabe refuses to
hand over power in
the event of losing.
“They have turned all
state security departments into appendages or
sub-structures of Zanu PF and
this why we insist on reforms,” said Khumalo.
Another political analyst,
Dewa Mavhinga said Zanu PF was pushing for early
elections while resisting
any reforms to realign the political leadership of
the army to act in a
manner consistent with the dictates of multi-party
democracy.
He
said security sector reforms were necessary to prevent the country from
sliding back into chaos during elections.
“A sustained push for the
re-alignment of the security sector, which
includes the injection of fresh
blood at the top, is one key guarantee for a
non-violent, free and fair
election,” said Mavhinga.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:00
BY SOFIA
MAPURANGA
CHITUNGWIZA Town Council has secured 1,9 million Euros (US$2,9
million) to
upgrade the town’s water pipeline that stretches from Harare, in
a move
aimed at addressing the current water woes gripping the dormitory
town.
Chitungwiza town council director of works Engineer Alfonse
Tinofa said the
money was sourced from the African Development Bank (ADB)
through the
African Water Facility.
“A contractor has already
been engaged and has since commenced work at the
beginning of the year and
it is council’s expectation that work on this
pipeline will be completed by
June 2012,” said Tinofa.
Tinofa said the new pipeline will improve
the flow of water from Harare to
Chitungwiza since it has a “modern pressure
reducing mechanism”. “The pipe
that we are currently using has manual
mechanisms to determine the pressure
of water that we get from City of
Harare. This has been a challenge for us
as it does not pump enough water
for residents,” he said.
He said Chitungwiza town requires at least
43 megalitres daily to cater for
residents but only 30 megalitres are being
supplied due to challenges such
as power shortages.
Water
treatment plant a long-term solution
Tinofa said upgrading the
water pipe was a short-term solution adding that
the council was in the
process of sourcing funds to establish its own water
treatment
plant.
“It is council intention to establish a water treatment plant
at Nyatsime as
a long-term solution to ensure constant supplies of water to
residents,” he
said.
Chitungwiza residents have, on several occasions,
raised complaints after
going for days without running water, a situation
that causes the outbreak
of diseases.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 11:57
BY NQOBANI
NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — THE MDC-T has filed an urgent High Court application that
seeks
to order Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and the co-Home
Affairs ministers to force police to immediately release confidential
materials they seized at the party’s offices last week.
Police in
Bulawayo have since last week been withholding fliers and
confidential
minutes they grabbed from the MDC-T offices after forcing party
youths to
abort the launch of the “Free Solomon Madzore Campaign”.
At least 50
party youths were arrested but were later released without a
charge. In the
urgent application, MDC T said the raid was illegal and
sought an order
directing Chihuri and the co-Home Affairs Ministers Kembo
Mohadi and Theresa
Makone to release all confiscated materials which
includes minutes of a
national council meeting held in December last year.
The
Officer-In-Charge of Bulawayo Central Police Station, Mohadi and Makone
are
also cited as the first, second and third respondents respectively. The
MDC-T said the continued withholding of party materials posed a threat as
the information contained might “fall on wrong hands and be
doctored”.
The withholding of material was also hampering the party’s
efforts to
implement the resolutions of the December meeting. In his
founding affidavit
MDC-T Bulawayo youth assembly chairman Bekithemba Nyathi
said:
“I am approaching this Honourable Court for an urgent order for the
restoration of possession of 8 boxes of fliers (with each box containing
5000 copies) and two boxes (with each box containing 5000 copies) of the 3rd
Applicants National Council Resolutions of the 17th December 2011 . . .,”
said Nyathi.
The matter has been set down for a hearing this
week.
Madzore, who is the chairperson of MDC-T youth assembly, has
been
languishing at Chikurubi Maximum Prison together with other seven party
members after they were arrested in October last year following the death of
a police officer, Petros Mutedza, in Glen View.
Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai in December came under fire from his party’s
Youth
Assembly for failing to ensure the release of Madzore. It charged that
he
was treating the issue with kid gloves.
Promise Mkhwananzi, the MDC-T
youth assembly secretary-general said they
wanted the party to treat
Madzore’s arrest in the same manner it treated
treasurer-general Roy
Bennett’s arrest.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 11:55
BY JENNIFER
DUBE
THE sound of gushing water can be heard as one approaches a flourishing
maize field at an open space in the sprawling Budiriro 4 high-density
suburb.
As the source of the sound comes into view, one would be forgiven
for
thinking it is a water fountain in a neglected park.
A closer
look however, shows the site is actually a faulty manhole,
continuously
spewing raw sewage into a stream which flows through a nearby
municipal
farm, en-route to Lake Chivero, Harare’s main source of drinking
water.
A few metres down the sewer line is yet another defective
manhole, also
incessantly discharging human waste into the same
stream.
But despite the dangers of contracting communicable diseases, some
residents
have planted maize, tomatoes and vegetables in the area
surrounding the
manholes and along the stream.
The vegetables and
green maize — grown and harvested under unhygienic
conditions — are later
sold to unsuspecting consumers exposing them to
diseases.
Cattle
at the council-owned farm drank the sewage water which is in
abundance.
Children who go to the nearby school said they were unhappy with
the
repugnant smell and the mud caused by the manholes.
“When I started
school at (Budiriro) High 1 in 2009, one of my challenges
was crossing this
area because it is always smelly and muddy because of the
sewage,” Nicola
Chibanda said.
“It gets worse during the rainy season. We always see
city council workers
at the manholes, but the sewage continues flowing onto
our path.”
A man, who said he was a caretaker at the school, said the
situation was not
improving.
“The children have been complaining
about the mud and that is why I decided
to work from here today, although
all I can do is dig trenches for the water
to flow to the opposite direction
and also put grass and soil over the mud,”
he said.
The
Environmental Management Agency (EMA) recently fined the Harare City
Council
(HCC) US$15 000 for environmental mismanagement. Among other
charges, the
city was found guilty of water and effluent mismanagement and
was fined
US$15 000.
The Budiriro manholes were cited among other poorly
managed sites. Acting
town clerk Prosper Chonzi on Thursday said the city
had plans to attend to
the sewer bursts and all other environmental hot
spots.
“We are just waiting for the money from the Afrexim (China’s
African
Export-Import) Bank which agreed to fund our projects. That our
cattle drink
the water is not a concern because that is part of the
ecosystem, (the)
reason why we use final effluent to irrigate
pasture.”
He added: “But we may have to reprioritise and attend to
the site much
earlier than we had planned because of these complaints which
are now coming
through.” Chonzi on Thursday told a special council meeting
that
Dzivarasekwa, Kuwadzana, Warren Park and Kambuzuma suburbs have been
hit by
diarrhoea outbreaks in recent days.
Chonzi said that 450
people were attended with diarrhoea and other typhoid
symptoms at Warren
Park Clinic since the first week of January. He said more
than 200 people
who were “much sicker than those attended to in
Dzivarasekwa”, arrived with
diarrhoea, fever, headaches and other typhoid
symptoms at Kuwadzana Clinic
between Monday and Thursday last week alone.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 11:51
BY KUDZAI
CHIMHANGWA
PEOPLE last week roundly condemned proposals by the central bank
governor,
Gideon Gono, for the re-introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar saying
such a
suggestion evokes painful memories of struggles they went through at
the
height of the economic crisis a few years back.
Gono
last week proposed the idea of Zimbabwe reverting to its own currency
alongside other currencies in its economic development prospects. “We cannot
depend on the fortunes and misfortunes of a currency we cannot control,”
Gono recently told a business conference.
He said
Zimbabwe cannot control the exogenous inflationary pressures created
by the
United States dollar. But a snap survey by The Standard around the
streets
of Harare yesterday revealed that most people were not interested in
even
hearing about the return of the local currency.
They said talking
about the re-introduction of the local currency was being
insensitive to
people who experienced hardship at the height of the economy’s
freefall in
2008.
“It’s too early to re-introduce the Zimbabwe dollar. Look, our
own industry
is not functioning,” said a young man who identified himself as
Fatso
Mandizvidza.
“We are relying on imports there isn’t anything that
we are producing
ourselves, so in a short space of time that Zim dollar will
return our
country to the catastrophic state of affairs that prevailed in
2008.”
Another Harare man, Shepherd Nyandoro said the country’s
economy needed more
time to recover and perform to levels that prevailed in
the 1990s.
“I don’t think the economy’s performance has peaked sufficiently
for us to
introduce the Zim dollar. We just need more time to revive our
industrial
sector,” said Nyandoro.
Economist Eric Bloch said the
decision by Finance minister Tendai Biti to
shelve the re-introduction of
the Zimbabwe dollar was commendable as this
would provide the economy
adequate time to recover.
“That (introducing Zim dollar) would be a
complete disaster because nobody
would want to use a currency that is not
backed by reserves,” said Bloch.
“We shouldn’t consider re-introducing it
until the economy completely
recovers, perhaps the earliest date would be in
2014 when the economy would
have hopefully shown strong signs of
recovery.”
‘Zim dollar out of question’
A young woman who
identified himself as Morris Moyo said:
“I think the value of a country’s
currency is determined by the state of its
economy. Our economy is not
functioning and performing properly, so it’s not
logical to bring in our own
currency.”
A middle-aged woman, who requested anonymity, welcomed the
idea and said
perhaps the financial difficulties most families are
experiencing, would be
relieved.
“If the Zim dollar comes back
perhaps the situation may improve,” she said.
“The dollar that we are using
does not belong to our country, right now the
US dollar is causing us
problems as prices of basic products are going up,
yet the dollar is very
hard to come by.”
A savvy businesswoman named Betty, who operates
along Harare Street, said
such a move would bring untold misery on
people.
“Introducing the Zim dollar is just out of the question. Look, right
now
people can plan their business properly; in fact many people are
comfortable
with the United States dollar.
“We can’t afford to go back to
the suffering of 2008 where people had to
struggle to get money that
couldn’t even buy anything,” said Betty.
When inflation was 231
million percent
Before the inception of the multiple currency
regime in 2009, long queues at
banks were the order of the day throughout
the country as people patiently
waited to access defunct Zimbabwe dollar
notes.
So dire was the situation that upon accessing bundles of
trillion dollar
notes from the bank, one found it difficult to even buy a
loaf of bread as
the currency’s value depreciated by the
minute.
At one time inflation topped 231 million percent. Economists
blamed the RBZ,
at the behest of Gono, for fuelling world-record inflation
as the central
bank continually printed the useless notes which even shop
owners refused to
accept as payment. Zimbabwe had literally come to a
standstill when some
soldiers began running amok looting shops in Harare
before government
adopted the use of foreign currency.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012
13:20
BY OUR STAFF
THE 2012 tobacco selling season opens on February
15 amid expectations from
stakeholders of high output and quality
crop.
The tobacco would be auctioned at four floors — Tobacco Sales
Floor, Boka
Tobacco Floors, Millennium Tobacco and Premier
Tobacco.
Players in the industry told Standardbusiness they hope for
a “bit more in
terms of national yield and better quality
tobacco”.
Zimbabwe Progressive Tobacco Farmers Union president,
Nicholas Kapungu, told
Standardbusiness that the organisation is optimistic
ahead of the selling
season, as all members will sell the crop to one buyer,
Star International
Tobacco, whom they have agreed with on
prices.
“We agreed with them on the prices before we planted our
tobacco and the
price is good,” he said.
Kapungu said the union had
secured the buyer to avoid congestion which
characterised floors the
previous selling season.
Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (Timb)
has already promised it has done
its work and the coming selling season
would be congestion- free.
Kapungu said his union has a membership of
21 000 farmers, but managed to
secure inputs for 5 000 farmers. Each of the
farmers was given inputs for
one hectare.
Kapungu said his union
had organised for trucks to deliver tobacco to the
floors from the various
districts. Every season, farmers complain of the
high transport costs to the
floor, with growers saying the transport
operators were milking them of
their hard-earned cash.
On burley tobacco, Kapungu said his union had
identified a foreign buyer for
their crop starting next year. The buyer will
provide inputs for burley. The
move to secure a foreign buyer for burley is
a major breakthrough in the
tobacco industry as growers have been facing
problems after the closure of
Burley Marketing Zimbabwe (BMZ), an auction
floor that was dedicated to the
marketing of burley
tobacco.
Burley tobacco growers — who owned BMZ — sold the floor to
Savannah Tobacco,
a cigarette manufacturing company, in
2010.
Timb has already said that it expects buyers to exhaust the
local crop
before it resorts to imports. Tobacco production is on the
increase buoyed
by favourable prices on the auction floor but it has not yet
reached
yesteryears’ peak.
In the 2011 season, 132,4 million kg
were sold below the 170 million kg
output which had been projected by
Timb.
It raked in US$361,5 million compared to the US$355,6 million
realised in
2010. At its peak, Zimbabwe produced 236 million kg in 2000.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 13:20
THE
World Bank (WB) has recommended that government launches an electrical
power
demand-side management programme designed to encourage consumers to
use less
energy during peak hours.
It also encourages users to move the time
of energy use to off-peak times
such as nights and weekends. The country has
been reeling under a
power-supply crisis, characterised by chronic power
outages for the past
decade.
The sole power supplier, the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa)
continues to face operational
and service delivery problems. The energy
crisis has put blight on the
country’s hopes of a sustained economic growth,
as load shedding and high
tariffs have negatively affected productivity in
the manufacturing and
mining sectors.
Power demand is expected to increase by 29% this year
spurred by increased
mining activity. WB Zimbabwe Country Manager Mungai
Lenneiye said that it is
anticipated that current power shortages are likely
to continue to hamper
growth in the short to medium term.
“These
power shortages have resulted from inadequate maintenance experienced
over
the past decade, including vandalism and theft, and the lack of
adequate
financial resources. The weak financial situation of the power
sector has
also limited Zesa’s ability to promote and finance new generation
investments,” said Lenneiye.
— BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012
12:16
It’s an election year once again. To politicians it means way up
the ladder
to the political office and all its benefits. To children it
means parents
being beaten up or killed; health and rights being violated
and the minors
being made even more vulnerable to political exploitation
than in previous
years.
Our job as advocates is to be aware,
and to listen for what matters. For
politicians, there is an office to win,
for us there are more child rights
to lose.
Each five years
Zimbabwe votes a new breed of policy makers into Parliament,
most of them
ignorant of what they will be expected to do for the
constituencies that
voted them into political office.
Parliamentarians are mandated by
our votes to use parliamentary procedure
and mechanisms on our behalf to
oversee government action and ensure that
they meet global child protection
requirements. Their government agreed to
uphold human rights without
reservations when it signed, in case of
Zimbabwe, the United Nations
Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
and the African Charter on
the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).
In past years we have
seen those voted into Parliament working overnight
formulating policies that
please their political leaders rather than those
who voted them into power.
As they work on policy formulation, it is my
advice to parliamentarians
that as they work hard to please their masters,
they should also remember
those with the powers to vote them out of office
by making use of
parliamentary mechanisms to ensure that child protection
issues are
mainstreamed in all parliamentary and governmental activities.
They
should also ensure that responsibilities and mandates of governmental
departments are clearly defined in order to ensure proper coordination and
avoid gaps in government implementation of child friendly
policies.
Parliamentarians, as fathers and mothers themselves, should
learn to listen
to children’s needs as it is the only way they can
understand what is
expected of them while in Parliament. Adolescent period
is a critical stage
in a person’s growth and development. Let us all jointly
pay close attention
to the particular needs and concerns of our children
today and also create
opportunities for them to participate in society. Let
us allow them freedom
and opportunity to mature into healthy
adults.
As the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) draws near;
every effort must be made to ensure the equal well-being
of children in
Zimbabwe. While keeping their hopes and dreams alive, it is
up to us to
enable our children to reach their full potential. Let us work
together with
them to make life a positive adventure.
Election
time must not be a scary period to our children; but must be used
as an
opportunity to teach them how to practice their God given right to
choose
the leaders that they want. This is an opportunity for us to teach
them how
to uphold human rights and promote democracy and to learn to treat
all human
beings in the world equally as their partners and friends in
development,
regardless of colour, religious or political background.
With the
loudest voices we must all say NO! to political violence and child
sexual
abuse and exploitation. No to child labour and child trafficking.
We
need to show our strength to policy makers. Before they get into
political
office let’s tell them what we expect them to do for our children.
It’s time
for us all to come together and make this world a better place for
every
child.
BY ELPHAS McLOUD ZADZAGOMO MOYO CHARI
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012
12:12
Water is colourless, odourless and tasteless.
This is what
conventional wisdom teaches at primary school.
However, when you stay in
Harare, you know that municipal water can be as
foul-smelling as raw sewage
...ugh!
You also know that when you pour it into a glass, some dark
particles
accumulate at the bottom making it scary to drink.
And when you
boil it, it turns a murky green on top, leaving one wondering,
no doubt, how
this is possible when water is supposed to be colourless.
I thought
about the changing complexion of Harare’s water this week in the
wake of the
damning judgement by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA)
on the way
city council is managing its sewer system.
EMA’s findings against the
Harare City Council can be a case study of how
not to manage toxic waste.
They reveal, in considerable detail, how the
city council is wantonly
releasing raw sewage into the environment from its
numerous pump stations
thereby contaminating water bodies that supply the
city with drinking water.
The judgement, made public two weeks ago, proves
beyond doubt that the
council is guilty of polluting the environment.
For those who doubt
the city’s culpability, EMA is in possession of shocking
videos whose
content cannot be described in this column for fear of
upsetting our readers
at their breakfast table.
The result of these illegal dumping
activities is the pollution of water
bodies, prominent among them being Lake
Chivero, which supplies the city
with water.
No wonder Harare
has been experiencing an upsurge in waterborne diseases
such as cholera,
dysentery and diarrhoea, and lately typhoid. EMA’s
revelations prompted us
to undertake our own investigations last week to
establish the extent of the
problem.
One of our journalists visited a council farm in Budiriro
where she made an
astonishing discovery: municipal cattle drinking from a
stream brimming with
sewage waste.
The journalist also came
across vast fields of maize and vegetables that
thrive on sewage water. (No
prizes for guessing the source of the manure
feeding the crop). On a
shopping trip to Mbare for vegetables one Sunday, I
saw mbambaira (sweet
potatoes), some that had grown bigger than Environment
minister Francis
Nhema’s head.
Upon inquiring about their unusual size, one tout
whispered in my ear that
they were grown on a sewage marsh. In the developed
world, someone would
have packed their bags from Town House in shame soon
after the wanton sewage
dumping on the environment was
exposed.
But alas, the Muchadeyi Masunda-led council doesn’t
appear to see any harm
in pursuing practices that are disgusting to the
people whose rates sustain
their operations. If they did, they would have
stopped the practice a few
years ago when thousands of residents succumbed
to the cholera epidemic.
We asked acting Town Clerk Prosper Chonzi to
comment on our findings at the
council farm in Budiriro and his response was
an attempt to defend the
indefensible.
“That our cattle drink the
water is not a concern because that is part of
the ecosystem, reason why we
use final effluent to irrigate pasture,” he
enthused
glibly.
Chonzi’s reasoning can only expose the collectively warped
mentality of the
people that have been tasked with running council affairs
on residents’
behalf.
Surely, who on earth thinks it’s perfectly
ok for cattle, destined for our
pots, to feast on our raw waste. Wild pigs
are despised for doing exactly
that.
The US$15 000 fine that
council is supposed to pay for its crimes is peanuts
considering the
magnitude of the offence committed. Fines should be made
stiffer to deter
Harare and other local authorities such as Chitungwiza that
are polluting
the environment. Our environment needs to be preserved not
only for the sake
of future generations but for the sake of our health.
Releasing
pollutants like sewage on the ground can do no good except to
contaminate
rivers and underground water sources. The dumping of sewage also
fouls the
places where we live.
The swamp between Belvedere and Rugare township
is a blot on the landscape
because of the concomitant mix of sewage and
industrial waste.
Residents call the place Kumazai (the place for
rotten eggs) because of the
foul smell and the flies found there. There are
many places that bear the
same nickname, such as the area between Kuwadzana
Extension and Mufakose.
Manyame River, close to Skyline Motel, after
the toll gate along the
Harare-Masvingo Road, is notorious for producing a
foul smell. This river
and other equally stinking streams that feed into
Lake Chivero, have failed
to jolt the council into
action.
Council is also failing to collect refuse, resulting in the
proliferation of
illegal dumps in the city centre and residential
areas.
One needs only to go to Mbare’s crowded hostels to appreciate how bad
the
situation is.
Garbage, uncollected for years, is turning the
suburb into a fly and rodent
zone. Children oblivious of the dangers
associated with such dumps, are
often seen rummaging through the rubbish in
search of anything ...God knows
what...
The city council is also
failing to properly burn waste at its dump sites.
It is also tragic that the
council appears to have little regard for
wetlands, the pristine, fragile
and sensitive ecosystems protected by law.
Some of these were preserved by
city planners of yesteryear. Harare is now
free for all — a city where
anyone can build anywhere without any regard to
the fragility of the
environs.
As I write, there is a dispute over the location of a hotel
near the
National Sports Stadium in a wetland being built by the Chinese.
The piece
of land was commissioned by President Robert Mugabe in 1987 and
set aside
for growing indigenous trees.
Trees planted by
heads of state during the Commonwealth Heads of State and
Government in 1991
to symbolise an International Friendship Forest have
already been cut to
pave the way for the project despite opposition from
Belvedere
residents.
All this is the bad news that we have to grapple with in
2012. Knowing the
culture of lawlessness and impunity that has taken root in
Zimbabwe, we can
only hope and pray that the mayor and his councillors will
come to their
senses and comply with EMA’s ruling.
A positive
beginning would be to:
Halt stand allocations and commercial development in
wetlandsareas;
Reverse planning permits and any development that has not
commenced, and
where development has taken place to submit a plan of
mitigatory measures;
Review all local plans to ensure compliance with the
Environmental
Management Act and to submit a report by February 10 as well
as to secure
Pomona dumpsite and stop the use of the decommissioned Golden
Quarry and to.
Publish in the press and on its notice boards a waste
management plan which
clearly outlines the dates, areas and times for refuse
collection by 31
January 2012.
Stop sewage dumping
These and
other measures recommended by EMA can bring back the sunshine to
Harare
city.
Otherwise Harare will turn into a real Kumazai.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:10
We were
not surprised by Constitutional Affairs minister Eric Matinenga’s
revelations this week that 23 MPs have failed to account for monies advanced
to them under the Constituency Development Fund.
The MPs now face
possible prosecution for mishandling funds which they
should have used to
finance developmental projects in their constituencies.
We saw this
happening from last year when the monies were splurged to the
lawmakers. At
the time, Matinenga told the nation that many of our MPs do
not possess
basic knowledge in accounting.
“What we have noticed — except for one
or two constituencies — is that there
is no capacity to do proper books of
accounts by most MPs, but (it is) not
really misuse of the funds,” Matinenga
said at the time. But the minister is
being made to swallow his words. The
MPs’ functional illiteracy in handling
funds has degenerated into
plunder.
Finance minister Tendai Biti in 2010 allocated each
constituency US$50 000
to help finance developmental projects. The
announcement of the vote was
greeted with great applause by MPs but their
enthusiasm has not been matched
by delivery.
The MPS have failed
to demonstrate how the money was used. They need to
produce receipts and
vouchers to show how funds were employed. Pointing to a
repaired dip tank,
boreholes or bicycles for headmen is not good enough!
The failure to
keep proper records of accounts is a huge indictment on the
MPs we have. We
want to point out at this juncture that one of the key
functions of
parliament is to keep a tight leash on the executive. This
fundamental
function is only possible when we have MPs of the right calibre:
men and
women of integrity who possess the right intellectual aptitude to
probe
activities of the executive.
MPs can only play this watchdog role if
they can do basic things right, like
keeping records, documenting
development in their constituencies and keeping
track of social needs in the
community. Most MPs have generally failed in
this regard to the extent that
they know very little about the people they
represent.
Successive
reports by the Comptroller and Auditor-General have exposed
rampant misuse
of state funds. The reports have not been complemented by
robust debate from
MPs. Can they do this when they cannot accounts for US$50
000?
There must be a deliberate plan to raise the bar when
choosing MPs. The
Constituency Development Fund has exposed them. This
country deserves better
leaders and not toadying
slogan-pushers.
Quote of the week
"Press conferences are
for the media and not stakeholders like war
veterans. If they want to give
their views, they would do so at a briefing
for stakeholders and they
absolutely had no business at a press conference,”
Copac co-chairperson,
Douglas Mwonzora on threats by war veterans to disrupt
the
constitution-making process.
