http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:48
MDC-T
MPs in whose constituencies the training is being conducted said the
“military-style programme” has been going on for the past six
months.
They said the trainers were mostly ward youth officers, retired army
officers and war veterans, who terrorised villagers during the 2008 violent
elections.
MDC-T claims that 200 of its activists were murdered by state
security
agents and Zanu PF militia during that
time.
Co-chairperson of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation
Committee (Jomic)
Elton Mangoma last week said Zanu PF was secretly training
the notorious
militia in preparation for the polls.
“Zanu PF is
secretly training militia,” declared Mangoma, who is the MDC-T
negotiator in
the unity talks.
“The programme is being done through ward youth
officers and the ghost
workers we are fighting to remove from the
pay-roll.”
He said the officers were part of the 75 000 ghost workers
that Zanu PF is
refusing to remove from government’s pay-roll.
In
Makoni North, said Mangoma, the training is being held at Sherenje
School,
disturbing pupils.
“To try and sanitise the programme, they are
claiming that it is part of
community projects like road maintenance when in
actual fact they want to
deploy the militia once election dates are
announced,” he said.
But the Ministry of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment said the programme at Sherenje was
part of 63 Youth Build
Zimbabwe projects underway across the
country.
Mangoma said last week’s Jomic visit to Sherenje failed to
prove the
training of militia because “the event was stage-managed” to hide
the
goings-on at the school.
In a report by Jomic dated May 17
2011, Kasukuwere’s permanent secretary
Prince Mpazviriho said there was
confusion between National Youth Service
(NYS) and the Youth Development
Programme, which incorporates Youth Build
Zimbabwe, run under his
ministry.
“They explained that the Youth Build Zimbabwe was
misunderstood, not only
because of political polarisation in the country,
but also because of the
stigma attached to the previous NYS,” said the
report that was compiled
after complaints from Mangoma.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:46
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
AFTER Zanu PF’s denials that the party had resuscitated the
training of its
controversial youth militia in Mashonaland Central, The
Standard last week
visited the province to uncover the
truth.
Youths and villagers who were interviewed said the training
programme was
now an open secret.
It also emerged that
the youths, aged between 16 and 35 years, were
recruited according to their
political affiliation.
At Madziwa Business Centre, over 100 youths
gather at around 5am in the
morning and start with military drills before
“toy-toying” to and from
Bradley School, about 5km away.
After
the drills, they are fed a dosage of Zanu PF ideology, taught the
history of
the liberation struggle and constantly reminded of the need to be
patriotic.
They train for three days a week, from Monday to
Wednesday and contribute
US$1 every fortnight plus some maize meal for their
upkeep.
Three MDC-T supporters who had joined the programme were
ejected after they
were identified and were labelled as
“enemies”.
One of those ejected, Dickson Tembo (19) confirmed that
they were fed a
daily dosage of Zanu PF propaganda during
training.
“When we registered, they told us that it was a
non-partisan national
programme but we were surprised when we were told to
chant Zanu PF slogans
and denounce Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai saying
‘Down with Tsvangirai’,”
Tembo said.
Villagers also expressed
concern about the training, which they believe is a
Zanu PF project in
preparation for elections. Zanu PF’s politburo this week
said elections must
be held this year.
The villagers said the programme reminded them of
the June 2008 violent
one-man presidential runoff poll.
“They
passed through my homestead singing that they will repeat what they
did in
June 2008 if need be,” said MDC-T district co-ordinator for Shamva
Chenai
Yohane.
“The trainers sometimes put on the Border Gezi
uniforms.”
When the three MDC-T supporters were kicked out of the
programme, Yohane
confronted one of the coordinators, Obert Muchemwa, who
openly told her: “I
only train Zanu PF supporters, not
sellouts”.
In Mazowe Central constituency, the training centres are
at Kakora, Nyakudya
and Nzvimbo Growth Point.
The MP for the
area, Shephard Mushonga (MDC-T) said the programme was meant
to intimidate
MDC supporters ahead of elections.
MDC-T Manicaland provincial
spokesperson Pishai Muchauraya also confirmed
the training of militia in his
province.
“We have established that they are taught how to operate
and clean guns,”
Muchauraya said.
“We have also gathered that
they will be deployed once the election date is
announced.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011
11:59
BY KHOLWANI NYATHI
PRESIDENT Robert Muga-be last week
made yet another summersault on the
timing of the country’s next elections
and rejected his own party’s position
that elections could not be held this
year.
Negotiators from the three governing parties on July 6 agreed
on a timetable
that puts the polls in 2012 or 2013.
The
roadmap that was also signed by Zanu PF negotiators Patrick Chinamasa
and
Nicholas Goche seeks to accommodate the stalled constitution-making
process.
It also spells out a time frame of 45 days to complete
electoral reforms and
two months to prepare a new voters
roll.
But an increasingly erratic Mugabe on Friday used Zanu PF’s
central
committee meeting to repudiate the progress made by the negotiators
with the
help of South African President Jacob Zuma.
“We still
have six months to go and elections can be held this year,” he
said. “The
inclusive government was not meant to last forever.”
The statements
by the ageing Mugabe have thrown the country back into
uncertainty as the
lifespan of the inclusive government remains unknown.
This is not the
first time Mugabe has differed with his party’s negotiators.
Effie
Ncube, a Bulawayo- based political analyst said Mugabe’s latest U-turn
was
not surprising as he was battling to keep a heavily divided party
intact.
“He wants to placate different Zanu PF factions,” Ncube
said. “Zanu PF does
not have a united approach when it comes to dealing with
the MDC.
“There are some who want the inclusive government to collapse while
others
want to it to continue while the party continues to deal with its
internal
divisions.”
He said Mugabe (87) could be under pressure
to call for an election under
the current conditions where he was assured of
winning and handing over the
baton to a Zanu PF successor.
Mugabe
has over the last decade battled to manage his succession and has
confessed
that he fears his party will disintegrate if he leaves the scene.
Zanu PF has
three factions that are known to be fighting for the control of
the party in
the post- Mugabe era.
There are reports that some officials,
including the fluid Jonathan Moyo,
are now working with service chiefs in
what could emerge as a third faction.
“There are a lot of things going
against Mugabe right now, including his
reported health problems and age,”
Ncube said.
“At the same time he is aware that South Africa and Sadc
are watching him
very closely and this time he has to play by the
book.”
In 2008, Mugabe was forced to negotiate a power sharing
agreement with the
two MDC formations after African governments rejected his
purported win in a
one-man presidential run-off
election.
Tsvangirai, who had won the first round of the poll but
failed to get enough
votes to win the presidency, had been forced to
withdraw from the run-off by
violence blamed on the security
forces.
MDC-T claimed more than 200 of its supporters were killed in
the violence
and thousands were displaced.
CHINAMASA’S
WOES
PATRICK Chinamasa, the Zanu PF chief negotiator, in May courted the
ire of
the party’s politburo after he said “it is not possible to hold
elections
this year.”
He was forced to explain his statement at a
politburo meeting before the
party’s spokesman Rugare Gumbo announced that
Zanu PF had realigned its
position on elections with the
negotiators.
Zuma rules out another flawed poll for
Zim
South African President and Sadc mediator on Zimbabwe Jacob Zuma has
reiterated that Sadc will not tolerate another flawed electoral process in
Zimbabwe.
The South African leader has also insisted that the
roadmap must be
religiously followed.
Lindiwe Zulu, the
spokesperson of Zuma’s facilitation team also weighed in
on Friday saying
the Zimbabwean parties had no option but to follow the
roadmap.
MDC-T’s exiled treasurer general Roy Bennett said for
Zimbabwe to extricate
itself from its myriad of political and economic
problems, it had stick to
Sadc’s prescription.
“If we need to do
these things correctly and timeously, we have to follow a
set of reforms in
order that we can go into a genuinely free and fair
election as guaranteed
by Sadc,” Bennett told the Voice of America.
Sadc was forced to
intervene in Zimbabwe in 2002 after Mugabe beat
Tsvangirai in a
controversial presidential election.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:12
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
POLITICAL tension is still endemic among villagers in most
parts of
Mashonaland Central province despite the formation of the
government of
national unity (GNU) over two years ago.
In some villages,
Zanu PF and MDC supporters continue to treat each other
with suspicion or
open hostility.
A visit to villages around Madziwa Business Centre
last week revealed that
tension was still rife with neighbours accusing each
other of perpetrating
political violence in June 2008 that forced some
villagers to abandon their
homes for good.
When The Standard news
crew arrived at Memory Tembo’s homestead in Chigombe
village she was busy
replacing window panes allegedly broken by suspected
Zanu PF supporters in
the run-up to the June 2008 elections.
Tembo was being assisted by
her son Dickson, who she alleged, was kicked out
of the national youth
programme under the Ministry of Youth Development,
Indigenisation and
Empowerment, because he was an MDC-T supporter.
“We have just managed
to raise money to repair our home after a long time,”
Tembo said. “I hope
they will not come and destroy this again.”
She claimed to know the
people who destroyed their home and said they did
not talk to them even when
they meet along a narrow path.
After shattering the window panes and
breaking doors, she said, the
attackers threw a decomposing carcase of a dog
into the family well, their
only source of drinking water.
Tembo
claimed the family was prohibited from fetching water from the
communal
borehole by Zanu PF activists in the area.
“We had to empty the well
several times before we started drinking from it,”
she said. “At times, we
would see small bones in the water but we had no
choice.”
Her
neighbours who used to fetch water from her homestead stopped soon after
the
incident, preferring a well over a kilometre away.
Less than a
kilometre from Tembo’s home is another family whose members do
not speak to
their neighbours, whom they accuse of murdering their father in
the 2000
elections.
The families are separated by a small
hedge.
“We just look at each other. We don’t talk. Our turn will also
come,” said
one of the sons who was at the homestead.
One of the
houses is still without a roof since a 2008 attack.
MDC-T
co-ordinator for Shamva district Chenai Yohane said there were several
families that never returned to their homes after the June 2008 political
violence.
“Most of them are now staying in towns such as Bindura
and Harare,” she
said.
“I don’t have figures with me here but I
know there are so many,” said
Yohane, who pointed to two homes which she
said were deserted after the
owners fled fearing for their
lives.
“Even if they were to come back, where would they start
from?”
She said there was need to preach the gospel of peace, healing
and
reconciliation in the area before any elections.
She
challenged President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
to
visit the area to facilitate peaceful co-existence in the
community.
“If elections are held as things stand, more people will
die in this area,”
Yohane said. “Political tension is still high. People
don’t trust each
other.”
Abel Mugoni (34), who claimed to be a
Zanu PF supporter, accused political
leaders of fuelling tension and
violence in the area.
He said instead of promoting peace, they spewed
out hate language which
people used as a licence to intimidate and clobber
each other.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011
11:43
BY JENNIFER DUBE
A University of Zimbabwe researcher
engaged by Ballantyne Park residents to
assess Philip Chiyangwa’s activities
at a wetland in the suburb says the
business tycoon is destroying Harare’s
future water supply sources.
Chris Magadza said the Ballantyne Park wetland
is a first order tributary of
the Umwindisi Stream which is part of the
Mazowe catchment area.
He noted that on the Harare map, the wetland is shown
with a dam, together
with adjacent dams on Blair Park.
Magadza
said the wetland was part of the stream complexes that arise within
Harare
to form part of river systems that drain into the Zambezi
River.
Umwindisi forms part of the headwaters of the Nyaguwi, which
is the river
system of the proposed Kunzvi Dam to supply Harare with
water.
“Thus, the Ballantyne Park wetland is in fact a stream, whose
use and
management would be governed by the provisions of both the
Environment
Management Act and the Water Act,” Magadza
said.
“Ploughing the wetland as Mr Chiyangwa has done is in
contravention of the
stream bank cultivation
prohibitions.
“Disturbing wetland alters their hydrological
performance leading to loss of
their flow regulation properties, causing
excessive runoff and thus
groundwater recharges capacity.
“With
the now chronic failure of the City of Harare to deliver piped water
to
parts of the city means that residents now depend on groundwater.
“As the
city loses its wetlands to development and urban agriculture, its
capacity
to store groundwater diminishes.”
Magadza said ploughing and burning
of grass on the wetland increases erosion
risks, as the early rains run off
will not be impeded by groundcover litter.
He further explained that among
other important services wetlands provide is
pollution removal from street
and uncollected rubbish dumps runoff.
“Our studies show that this service is
worth tens of millions of dollars
annually,” Magadza said.
“As we
lose these wetlands, the cost of providing potable water
concomitantly
increases.”
He said the area also used to support wetland birds whose
habitats are
rapidly disappearing all over Zimbabwe.
Magadza
urged council to stop the developments which he said threatened
water
conservation and sound environment management.
Harare Mayor Muchadei
Masunda said the Ballantyne Park wetland is among
other issues to be looked
into by a land tribunal that council is yet to set
up.
“We have
identified eight individuals with strong legal and administrative
backgrounds and we will choose five to be members of the tribunal which will
be furnished with Warship Dumba and other councillors’ land sales report,”
Masunda said.
“Chiyangwa and everyone fingered in the report will
appear before this
tribunal which is expected to come up with a conclusion
in three months.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:40
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — Vice President John Nkomo and provincial
governors Cain Mathema
and Sithokozile Mathuthu have been threatened with
court action after they
allegedly failed to pay unit tax to the Lupane rural
district council.
But Nkomo’s son Jabulani and Mathuthu, the Matabeleland
North governor
yesterday said they did not owe the council
anything.
A council official had said the three senior Zanu PF
officials owed the
local authority a combined US$60 000 dating back to
January.
Nkomo owns Jijima Safaris, a conservancy in the Gwayi
area.
Mathema, Bulawayo governor and Mathuthu own Gwayi Ranch and
Dete Valley
farms measuring 4 600 and 2 800 hectares respectively in the
wildlife-rich
Matabeleland North province.
The alleged failure of
the three top government officials to pay the monthly
unit tax has
reportedly crippled the cash-strapped local authority, the
council’s Finance
Chairperson, Keyani Mpofu told The Standard on Thursday.
Mpofu said
council was also failing to develop the Matabeleland North
capital as a
result of the failure by ratepayers to pay on time.
According to a
notice by the council, the local authority is invoking
Section 151 and 198,
Chapter 29:14 of the Rural District Councils Act to sue
debtors, among them
Nkomo, Mathuthu and Mathema that owe the council varying
amounts, especially
for payments that the council survives on.
Mpofu said his council was
resorting to legal action as the debtors were
ignoring its notices calling
on them to partly clear or totally clear their
outstanding dues to the local
authority.
“Council survives on taxes and royalties but since they are
not paying, we
have been prejudiced and council operations have been
crippled,” Mpofu said.
“We have taken a position to take these people to
court to recover all that
the council is owed.
“According to the
Rural District Council Act, it is clear that all
defaulters are supposed to
be taken to court.
“The LRDC does not get any budget allocations just
like all councils and it
survives on revenue it generates and when royalties
are not paid, our
mandate as council to give quality service delivery is
greatly affected.”
Mathuthu she had not received any service from the
council because her
property was in Hwange.
Jabulani Nkomo said
although they had not been utilising the farm because of
a dispute with
another resettled farmer Langton Masunda they had paid all
their dues to
council.
He said the local authority had actually phoned them seeking to
correct a
mistake on their initial invoice.
Mathema who is also Zanu
PF’s deputy spokesman was not reachable for
comment.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:25
BY NUNURAYI JENA
AND CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s nephew has been
accused of trying to seize a
controlling stake in Lion’s Den Syndicate,
which owns properties in Chinhoyi
using the controversial black empowerment
law.
Lion’s Den Syndicate (Pvt) Ltd is owned by a group of white farmers and
businessman in and around Chinhoyi town. The Dilmitis family dominate the
syndicate.
But Mugabe yesterday denied that he was trying to
muscle his way into the
lucrative business syndicate. He however added that
he would join the
business venture as a willing partner, if they were to
invite him.
Mugabe alleged the syndicate has assets well above the
minimum US$500 000
and that is why they were panicking. Apart from buildings
and farming
ventures, the syndicate is also into quarry and limestone
extraction
business.
Sources say Mugabe’s interest arose soon
after he was kicked out of one of
the syndicate’s premises late last year
for non-payment of rentals.
The syndicate had to go to the courts in order to
evict Stewarts and Lloyds,
owned by Mugabe.
According to court
papers, Lion’s Den Syndicate went to court in 2005 to
force Mugabe to move
out of the premises after failing to pay rentals and
rates amounting to over
US$12 000 for almost two years.
Besides failure to pay rentals, the
syndicate claimed that Stewarts and
Lloyds breached their lease agreement as
they were now running a bar and
restaurant, besides subletting three
garages.
The court ruled in favour of the syndicate after which
Stewarts and Lloyds
appealed to the High Court but the matter was not heard
until June last
year.
The syndicate won the case again forcing
Mugabe and his company to vacate
the premises.
The court also
ordered Stewarts and Lloyds to pay all the outstanding rental
arrears of
US$5 252, electricity US$2 435,42, rates US$3620,74 and water
charges
amounting to US$1 039,60.
But the company has not paid even a single
cent up to this day.
The case, High Court case No. CIV “A” 394/05 and
Ref case No. Civ “A” 477/05
was heard before Justice Yunus Omerjee and
Justice Susan Mavangira.
Sources said Mugabe now wants to take up the
controlling stake in the
syndicate in what they allege is as a form of
revenge after being kicked
out.
Sensing that he was losing the case,
Mugabe allegedly proposed to buy the
premises but the syndicate’s lawyers’
Muchineripi and Associates refused
arguing that “how can you buy the
premises yet you are failing to pay
rates?” a feat they equate to the
biblical example of a camel going
through the eye of a
needle.
Mugabe, who is former MP for Makonde, yesterday vehemently
denied that he
wanted to take over a controlling stake in the syndicate. He
said he last
spoke to the chairman of the syndicate while he was still an MP
around 2005.
He however said he would take up a stake in the company
if they were to
invite him to be their partner.
“Perhaps, they
are not accusing me but inviting me because I don’t know what
they are
talking about,” Mugabe said. “If that is the case, then they are
most
welcome.”
The former Zifa chairperson admitted that Stewarts and
Lloyds, which is one
of his companies, owed the syndicate some money. He
said the matter was
being handled by his lawyers.
He said Lion’s
Dean Syndicate offered to sell the premises but he could not
take up the
offer because they were demanding too much for a building in a
town like
Chinhoyi.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:31
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
THE Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic)
has ordered the
Attorney General Johannes Tomana and the police to
immediately respond to
allegations raised by councillors that they are
selectively applying the law
by failing to investigate and prosecute the
Minister of Local Government,
Urban and Rural Development Ignatius
Chombo.
The Elected Councillors Association of Zimbabwe (Ecaz), who
accuse Chombo of
illegally acquiring vast tracks of land and property across
the country,
want the assistance of Jomic in securing the arrest and
prosecution of the
former University of Zimbabwe
lecturer.
The councillors had earlier on written to Jomic, an
interparty body that was
established to monitor the implementation of the
Global Political Agreement
(GPA), to force the police and the AG’s office to
explain why the two
offices “were selectively enforcing the
law”.
In a letter dated July 8 2011, Jomic demanded an explanation
from the AG
Johannes Tomana’s office and the Commissioner General of Police
Augustine
Chihuri over the allegations.
“The complaint (Ecaz)
cites your office as one of the respondents and we
have thus referred the
case to you,” said the letter signed by Jomic
Co-chairperson Oppah
Muchinguri of Zanu PF.
“We look forward to your speedy response to
the issues raised.”
Jomic communications manager Joram Nyathi said he
was not aware of whether
Tomana and Chihuri had responded to the Jomic
letter.
“I was out the whole week, so I am not in the picture on what
happened this
week,” Nyathi said.
In an earlier correspondence to
Jomic dated July 5 2011, Ecaz secretary for
legal affairs Tinashe Madamombe
expressed dismay that his association had
reported Chombo to the police four
times this year but no investigations
were carried out.
“Whereas
the police have shown the zeal in arresting ministers from the two
MDC
formations, even without an official complaint, they have been
inexplicably
reluctant to arrest Minister Chombo despite the documentary
evidence
presented to them,” said the letter.
The councillors conducted an
audit into the city’s land dealings and found
that Chombo and Harare
business mogul Phillip Chiyangwa had illegally
acquired some land in
Harare.
Chombo also owns several properties in other towns across the
country.
Some of the councillors who were involved in the audit that
unearthed
irregularities in which Chombo acquired land have since been fired
by the
same minister for different reasons.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:39
BY
NQOBANI NDLOVU
BULAWAYO — A senior police officer was fired and
thrown out of his
government lodgings after he was allegedly caught with
MDC-T songs on his
mobile phone and computer.
Assistant Inspector Tedius
Chisango, who was officer-in-charge at the
Ntabazinduna Police Training
Depot clinic, was evicted together with his
family on Friday.
He
was accused of trying to incite police recruits to revolt against
President
Robert Mugabe.
One of the songs that infuriated his superiors is
titled Saddam Waenda
KwasaraBob (Saddam Hussein is gone, Bob is
next).”
Chisango is now stranded after he was dumped in a bush, just
a few
kilometres from the training depot, about 30km from
Bulawayo.
“I am stranded in the bush and I have nowhere to go,” he
said yesterday.
“I slept outside last night with my family after the
eviction from the
police camp which you witnessed yesterday
(Friday).”
This journalist witnessed the eviction before he was
briefly detained
together with Pindai Dube of the Daily News and freelance
journalists
Pamenus Tuso and Oscar Nkala.
But the four were
released without any charges.
Police spokesman Superintendent Oliver
Mandipaka professed ignorance about
Chisango’s case when he was contacted
for comment yesterday.
Chisango’s predicament comes hard on the heels
of another case where another
Bulawayo police officer was jailed for 10 days
for using a toilet reserved
for Mugabe during the Zimbabwe International
Trade Fair in April.
Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri
has repeatedly expressed his
hatred of the MDC-T, which he claims was formed
to reverse Zimbabwe’s
independence.
MDC-T says the country’s
security sector needs urgent reform because of the
open bias shown by the
service.
However, Mugabe on Friday leaped to the defence of the
generals saying the
MDC-T was making the demands from a “politically drunk
condition.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:44
BY
JENNIFER DUBE
EIGHT MDC-T supporters including two women accused of
killing a senior
police officer last month have been denied urgent treatment
by prison
authorities, their lawyers said on Friday.
Cynthia Manjoro and
Yvonne Musarurwa are among the 24 who were arrested for
allegedly killing
Inspector Petros Mutedza.
Magistrate Shane Kubonera remanded the 24,
most of them MDC-T activists from
Glen View to July 29.
Defence
lawyer Jeremiah Bamu insisted that the state should quickly come up
with a
trial date.
He pleaded with the court to facilitate investigations
into the accused’s
complaints of torture while in police
cells.
Bamu said the defence prefers an independent body to
investigate the
complaints as the Attorney General’s office had exhibited
bias in the
matter.
“We are working on an application for bail under
changed circumstances which
we intend to file early next week,” Bamu said
after court.
“Some of the accused continue languishing in jail
despite being granted bail
due to a technical hitch regarding the need for
them to surrender their
passports, which they do not have.
“We
wrote a letter to the registrar general (Tobaiwa Mudede) and he promised
to
liase with the High Court Registrar Charles Nyatanga on that
issue.”
Bamu told the court that the eight who are still in custody
are nursing
various injuries but are failing to get medical attention within
the
Zimbabwe Prison Service.
“Yvonne Musarurwa has a fracture on
the left hand and blood is coming out
from a wound on the right leg,” Bamu
said.
“Cynthia Manjoro has a growth on the left knee but this has not
been
attended to.
“She needs to go for an urgent biopsy but this
has not been done.
“The only medication that they are receiving are
painkillers and it is
barely adequate for the serious injuries they
have.”
Manjoro’s arrest has sparked debate as her friends say she was
nowhere near
Glen View when Mutedza was killed.
She reportedly
spent most of her time at church and also at a friend’s house
on the
day.
Her lawyer Charles Kwaramba said although Manjoro was being
charged with
murder like the rest who the MDC says were nowhere near the
bottle store
where the cop was allegedly murdered by unknown revellers, she
was arrested
as bait to lead to the arrest of her boyfriend who was driving
her car on
the fateful day.
“The police had hoped that her
boyfriend would turn himself in as did
Tungamirai Madzokere when his wife
and sister were arrested when he could
not be found at home,” Kwaramba
said.
“When Madzokere handed himself in, the two women were released
so this was
the plan with Manjoro but it went bad because the boyfriend did
not hand
himself in.
“It is possible he was spotted in Glen View
but like everyone else, he was
not doing what he is alleged to have been
doing.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 11:52
BY NQABA
MATSHAZI
SOMEONE once described being part of Zanu PF as akin to
riding a hyena,
saying members feared that once they alighted the animal
would turn on them.
In typical hyena style, Zanu PF supporters last weekend
invaded Tracy
Mutinhiri’s farm, her crime allegedly being voting with MDC-T
for the
Speaker of Parliament position.
It seems Zanu PF has
been biding its time and was looking for the right
moment to strike on the
Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare and
punish her for her
misdemeanours.
Mutinhiri might have been riding her luck for a while
and she might even be
considered truant, as at one time she dared contest
her then husband Ambrose
in Zanu PF primaries.
Ambrose is one of
the senior people in the party, having been a general in
Zipra during the
armed struggle and a retired brigadier general in the army.
She was
also seen visiting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s mother and for
many in
Zanu PF this was the ultimate act of betrayal, as she was considered
to be
supping with the party’s arch enemy.
The way the Zanu PF politburo
handled the farm invasion, which is said to
have been instigated by State
Security minister, Sydney Sekeramayi,
indicated that Zanu PF had been
waiting for the right moment to strike.
Zanu PF spokesman, Rugare
Gumbo said the politburo could not waste its
precious time discussing such
petty issues like that of Mutinhiri as she was
just a card-carrying member
of the party, adding that she could resign if
she so
wished.
Political analyst and media scholar, Brilliant Mhlanga
believes this is part
of Zanu PF’s modus operandi, with the party dealing
with Mutinhiri for
failing to follow a “code”.
“It is part of
Zanu PF’s policy and culture anyway, the only issue with it
is that when it
has been happening to other errant members all these years
it never got
media coverage,” he said.
“But it is safe to say Zanu PF has always
been run like that. And all the
members understand that to be their
code.”
Mhlanga said politics in Zimbabwe was that of patronage and
members of all
parties knew what was expected of them and hence Mutinhiri
was a Zanu PF
insider and should not cry foul like an outsider, because she
should have
known what was expected of her.
“We now have a
situation where people who created their monster are only
crying to us
because they know we are still human and they wish to appeal to
our human
element for help,” he added.
Civilian element of politics missing
in Zanu PF, says Makumbe
Political analyst, John Makumbe said the events
of last week showed that
Zanu PF had lost its way and no longer had any
political content.
“These are signs of decadence,” he said. “You can
tell that the party is now
being run by war veterans and the militia, the
civilian element of politics
is missing.”
Makumbe said it did not
make sense that someone was being victimised for
having different ideas from
others in the party and these were signs that
Zanu PF was operating under a
siege mentality.
“The party has sunk below acceptable levels,” he
said.
‘Errant’ Zanu PF supporters have been dispossessed
before
Examples abound of people who have been hounded for differing with
the
party’s ideology.
Mhlanga pointed out that people like
businessman James Makamba, who was
forced to flee the country on a number of
charges, while Makumbe gave an
example of the late Welshman Mabhena, whose
farm was once invaded after
being fired from being governor of Matabeleland
North.
But since the turn of the millennium a trend has developed
where Zanu PF
members who dare deviate from party line have had their
properties, which
they would have acquired with the help of the party,
expropriated from them
as a way of punishment.
The classic
example probably would be Mutumwa Mawere, once a mining mogul at
the helm of
Shabanie&Mashaba Mines Holdings. The then Zanu PF-controlled
government
stalked him and hounded him out of the company, which they claim
to have
bought.
Mawere has made all the noises, been to the highest offices
and appealed to
just about anyone, but his long battle to repossess the
mines does not seem
to be bearing any fruit.
During his stint
away from Zanu PF, Jonathan Moyo’s farm was threatened with
seizure, since
he had fallen out with the party.
Those threats were not carried out,
but at one time even The Herald’s
columnist, Nathaniel Manheru, thought to
be president Mugabe’s spokesperson
George Charamba, talked up the
possibility of the invasion of the Mazowe
farm.
High Court
judge Ben Hlatshwayo also had his farm taken by Grace Mugabe.
Why the
First Lady chose that farm is not particularly clear, but it came at
a time
when Zanu PF was accusing some judges of passing unfavourable
decisions.
The judge had previously ordered that polling stations
should not be closed
while people were still queuing.
MDC had
claimed there were few polling stations in its strongholds and
suspected it
to be a ploy to deny its supporters their right to vote.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:29
BY NDAMU
SANDU
GOVERNMENT has frustrated a Chinese investor interested in a
pulp and paper
project in Manicaland after failing to provide assurance that
forest
plantations would not be invaded, a business executive said on
Tuesday.
Such an investment would have brought relief to the newspaper
industry which
is importing newsprint following the closure of the sole
local provider,
Mutare Board and Paper Mills.
Joseph Kanyekanye,
the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president
said China
Development Fund wanted to invest US$110 million in the
project.
“What they (China Development Fund) require for that project
to go through
is assurance from the state that they will not be invasions of
forest
plantations,” Kanyekanye said.
“They came here, I went
around with them myself; I tried to seek those
assurances myself on their
behalf. I failed to secure that.”
He said government must make
written undertakings that there will not be
invasions in forest plantations
owned by private and state- owned companies.
“Government must make a
commitment that they will remove everyone who is on
those plantations,” the
CZI boss said.
The frustration of the Chinese investor is a slap in
the face of government’s
efforts to lure investment into the country to help
rebuild the economy.
The economy is expected to achieve growth for the third
successive year in
2011 after a decade of recession.
Investment
has been identified as an engine to drive the growth
targets.
According to the Medium Term Plan unveiled two weeks ago,
government wants
investment to contribute 20% of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) in 2015
from the current 4%.
Based on the need to attract
foreign investment, government has simplified
procedures for investors
interested in Zimbabwe through the one-stop shop.
The failure to
provide assurance to the Chinese investors is also a slap in
the face of
government’s “Look East” policy adopted seven years ago.
Zimbabwe
“looked East” after Western countries tightened their screws on the
country
citing human rights and democracy deficiencies.
China is spreading
its tentacles across the continent with its governance
neutral approach in
its bid to get resources to feed its expanding economy.
Kanyekanye
believes if the assurance is there, the proposed pulp and paper
project in
Manicaland would start.
“I know them, I know where they are. We can
bring them.”
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:27
BY
KUDZAI KUWADZA
VICTORIA FALLS — There is an urgent need for policy
consistency in the
inclusive government to ensure the resurgence of the
banking sector, a
leading banker has said.
Speaking at the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (Icaz) Winter
School here on Friday, MBCA
Bank managing director Charity Jinya said there
was need for a predictable
and stable policy framework at a time the country
is still recovering from a
debilitating 10-year economic crisis.
“We need consistency in
policy,” she said “If one minister says something
today and one says
something else tomorrow, what do we believe?”
She said there was need
for clarity on the lifespan of the multicurrency
system to prevent
uncertainty.
“It does not make sense to me not to be definite about
it. We don’t need
uncertainty,” she said.
She said the roadmap to
the full recovery of the banking sector included the
continued
implementation of prudential measures in the market aimed at
reducing
vulnerabilities in the financial sector and to resolve the issue of
funds
that are owed by the Reserve Bank.
Jinya noted that the deposit/GDP
ratio in the post-dollarisation era had
shown a steady rise reflecting the
financial deepening of the economy.
She encouraged continuous
engagement with the government in efforts to
normalise the banking
sector.
The Icaz Winter School is being held under the theme
“Restoring business
fundamentals”.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:22
BY NDAMU
SANDU
BUSINESS has proposed the introduction of a levy that penalises
exporters of
unprocessed products to force companies to adopt value addition
and
employment creation.
The proposal by the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) is meant to
reinforce calls by economic blueprints
to embrace value addition.
CZI president, Joseph Kanyekanye
said business expected the proposal to be
contained in the Mid Term Fiscal
Policy Review statement.
Finance minister Tendai Biti is expected to
present the midterm policy on
July 26.
The value addition must
start on products such as cotton and tobacco, CZI
said.
“It is
wrong socially, ethically and legally to have a situation where you
export
over 90% of your cotton,” Kanyekanye said.
“The minister must put a
scenario where he says ‘this year for unprocessed
tobacco, cotton, we will
charge a 5% levy on the sale’.
“In year two it will go to 10%, in
year three it will go to 30% and in year
four it will go to 80%. In year
five it will be 100%.”
Value addition is contained in various
blueprints unveiled since
Independence.
Despite its recognition,
nothing has moved along that front and as a result,
the country has over the
years exported only raw materials.
He said government had instruments
such as the Medium Term Plan (MTP) and
other various blueprints but is not
living the talk.
Kanyekanye added that the absence of value addition
had not helped in
trimming down the country’s unemployment
levels.
“It is painful that a country like ours where we have
abundant resour-ces
should have unemployed people. We have Cotton Printers
in Bulawayo currently
under liquidation.
“We have no yarning
taking place,” the CZI boss noted.
If government decides not to
listen to its proposal, CZI threatened a
demonstration.
“The era
where business would come in suits and smile to you and say ‘thank
you
minister’ is gone.
“We are saying government musttake cue from that.
We have restless
businesspeople out there saying paying lip service to our
requests must go,”
Kanyekanye said.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011
12:03
By Tony Hawkins
Four new economic programmes in less
than 30 months in office might suggest
that Zimbabwe’s fragile coalition
government is bursting with new ideas.
But there is little fresh thinking in
new industry policy plans — a decision
to “pick winners” in particular harks
back to protectionism, while the
medium-term development plan repeats some
of the World Bank’s structural
adjustment mantra of 20 years
ago.
The coalition government launched two short-term emergency
recovery
programmes (Sterp 1 and 2) in 2009, and then followed them up with
an
industrial strategy early this year, and a medium-term development plan
last
week.
Hardly surprising therefore that at the public
launch of the 5-year
medium-term plan (MTP) last week, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai,
President Robert Mugabe’s junior coalition partner, asked “Why
should we be
inspired by this MTP? We have had so many plans,” adding that
over the last
six months his coalition has been
“dysfunctional”.
The plan itself justifies his doubts.
It
is non-committal on key issues. It does not say how the government will
tackle a foreign debt of over 100% of GDP, most of it arrears. It glosses
over the conflict between its target of US$9,2 billion of investment over
the five-year (2011-2015) period to be achieved by a “comprehensive
investment drive” and the government’s “indigenisation” programme requiring
foreign firms to dispose of 51% of their shares in local businesses,
something which will hit the mining sector quite hard.
Mining is
forecast to drive growth of 7,1% annually with diamond output
surging from 8
million carats this year to 21,5 million by 2015 while
production of gold,
nickel and coal will all double. The investment
necessary for this,
estimated by the mining industry itself at over US$6
billion, is not going
to happen if Indigenisation minister Saviour
Kasukuwere from Mugabe’s
Zanu-PF wing of the coalition pushes through his
plans to achieve majority
local ownership of the industry by the end of this
year.
Consistency is not the MTP’s strong suit. It is unclear how
mining output
can double while electricity capacity increases only 50%.
Zimbabwe today
generates less electricity than it did at Independence 31
years ago.
It is the same with rail transport, also crucial to mining
development.
Capacity is 18 million tonnes but less than 3 million tonnes
were moved last
year because only one third of the locomotive fleet is
functional. Moreover,
the total investment budget is US$9,2 billion, while
mining and public
sectors need US$10 billion between them, leaving nothing
for the rest of the
economy.
With both private sector capital
spending and public sector investment
falling short of target, the 7,1%
growth rate target looks decidedly flaky.
Perhaps the most glaring weakness
is the assumption that an economy that
devotes 92% of national income to
consumption can grow at over 7% a year.
Given all this, Zimbabwe’s
hope that American-style consumption will drive
growth looks misplaced. What
the country needs is a debt agreement with its
creditors and the dilution,
if not the outright rejection, of its
“indigenisation”
programme.
Without these two economic fundamentals in place, as well
as free elections
leading to the replacement of the deeply-divided coalition
by a majority
administration, the MTP is more aspirational than
achievable.
Professor Tony Hawkins lectures at the University of
Zimbabwe
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July 2011 12:10
By Clifford Chitupa
Mashiri
Jonathan Moyo hates his past and the proof lies in his
writings in which he
passionately castigated Robert Mugabe, the leader of
Zanu PF. Moyo said and
did things that he now wishes he should never have
said or done. That’s why
he does not want his dirty skeletons,
metaphorically speaking, removed from
the cupboard. Fortunately, he cannot
undo some of his “wrongs”, especially
what he wrote; it’s there for
eternity and historians to analyse and
sometimes laugh
at.
Judging from his latest attempts to silence the independent press
as if we
have pardoned him for his retrogressive media laws such as Aippa,
it can be
argued that he is facing tough tests of allegiance and loyalty to
Zanu PF.
Evidence that the architect of Zimbabwe’s tough media laws
is under the
microscope is his latest attempts to gag the Daily News and the
Zimbabwe
Independent by stopping them from republishing articles he wrote
attacking
Mugabe. However, the media is fighting back.
Topmost on
what can be perceived as Moyo’s personal problems which could be
the driving
force in his endless search for political immunity are his
unresolved issues
with the Ford Foundation Kenya and the University of
Witwatersrand in South
Africa. That could also explain his alleged
presidential ambitions whereby
he acts and speaks as if he is a
super-minister.
Another personal
crisis Moyo is facing is that of sanitising or air-brushing
the
self-inflicted damage of image as he appears to be having flashbacks or
nightmares of something he regrets doing — his anti-Mugabe
stance.
Then the party problems are mainly those of re-integration
whereby he
appears to be facing a credibility crisis and a crisis of
confidence in the
eyes of vigilant Zanu PF hardliners who are unconvinced by
his
“chameleon-style” tactics and lack of guerrilla war credentials other
than
transiting through Tanzania to the United States for his
Western-funded
degrees.
The party has had to engage in
fire-fighting tactics to douse Moyo’s
fireworks in the wake of his fiery
attacks on Sadc and the mediator on
Zimbabwe, South African President Jacob
Zuma. To some Mugabe loyalists, Moyo
is “a big risk”, is “incompetent” and
an “unguided missile”.
It is possible that Moyo is facing resentment
from within Zanu PF as there
has not been any internal party healing since
the Tsholotsho debacle hence
growing factionalism. However, rejoining Zanu
PF must have been a matter of
survival for the serial flip-flopper who had
to shed real tears to be
pardoned five years ago.
According to
the BBC, Jonathan Moyo cried (yes cried) when asked if he was
plotting a
coup, Mugabe told a campaign rally in March 2005.
“We asked him
whether he wanted to stage a coup…and tears started flowing.
down his
cheeks,” Mugabe said in Moyo’s home district. “He did terrible
things, going
to the army commander,” Mugabe told the crowd.
“No Jonathan, you are
clever, but you lack wisdom. You are educated, but you
do not have wisdom,”
Mugabe said.
Mugabe’s words seemed prophetic about Moyo because after
writing Why Mugabe
Should Go Now, Moyo went on to re-apply to work for the
same person he was
demonising with an archive of precious articles for
political historians.
So who is wise now?
Moyo’s failure to
“raise” Zanu PF from its “Lazarus moment” is frustrating
many in the party
and is evidenced by a series of botched projects he
undertook since his
return.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/
Sunday, 17 July
2011 12:08
Everyone’s heart must have begun to thump again last week when
the Zanu PF
politburo decided that elections would be held this year. This
is despite
that negotiators to the Global Political Agreement (GPA) had come
up with an
election roadmap with timeframes that indicated the polls could
only
realistically be held in the second half of next year.
There are
many reasons why the hearts of the generality of Zimbabweans must
have begun
to thump. Zimbabweans fear the violence that always accompanies
elections.
The next election is not going to be any different considering
the
belligerent stance that the uniformed forces have taken regarding the
result
of that election.
The so-called generals have openly reiterated that
they would not accept any
result that does not perpetuate President Robert
Mugabe’s rule. They have,
strangely, labelled MDC leader and Prime Minister
in the inclusive
government a “national security threat” and declared that
any national
security threat can only be dealt with by the
military.
It has also come to the nation’s attention that Zanu PF has
resuscitated the
national youth service first established by the late Border
Gezi which was
used to bludgeon political opponents into submission.
Elsewhere in this
issue we have established beyond any shadow of doubt the
existence of these
training camps.
Zanu PF, through its Youth
Development minister Saviour Kasukuwere, has said
these training camps are
dissimilar to the Border Gezi variety but are
instead national youth
empowerment projects. But it has been established
that the other parties to
the inclusive government are now aware of the
projects and they are not
endorsed by the other members of the inclusive
government. It has also been
established that youths not belonging to Zanu
PF have been fished out
through a witch-hunt and thrown out of the training
camps.
With
this collusion between the generals and the political hawks to deploy
military and paramilitary groups in the communal areas it is obvious the
country is set to go through another gruelling and bloody
election.
But in the past decade or so no election has been able to
move our dear
country forward. Each election has invariably been a step
backwards in terms
of bringing desired change to the lot of our people.
There is not doubt that
thousands have cumulatively perished in the
electoral violence of the past
decade.
But why the obsession with
elections when they stifle rather than enhance
democracy? Regular elections,
in normal countries, are the cornerstone of
democracy by its original
definition of being a government of the people,
for the people, by the
people.
In Zimbabwe elections have always achieved the opposite
result because they
have invariably resulted in illegitimate governments
ruling the country.
Indeed there hasn’t been a single government that has
come to power in this
country in the new millennium without
dispute.
Democracy is simple if followed according to its letter and
spirit.
Contestants put their cards on the table and people choose who among
them
best represents their interests. But that’s not what is happening in
Zimbabwe. Contestants have not put their cards on the table except that one
wishes to bring change of government while the other is resisting change.
But that cannot be the platform on which our purported electoral democracy
can be founded.
Zanu PF wants elections this year but it does not
tell us how that is going
to move the country forward. At the turn of the
century it based its
election campaign on the redistribution of land. This
was an emotive issue
that quickly gained support among lots of people but
look where it has left
us simply because it wasn’t done properly. Not only
are our people starving
as a result of under-utilisation and misuse of the
land. Many so-called new
farmers whom we were beginning to identify as signs
of the success of the
land reform programme are back in town crowding the
job market.
Because we can no longer feed ourselves many of our kith
and kin have
flooded neighbouring countries where they are now living like
paupers, their
erstwhile pride transformed into shame.
The Zanu
PF refrain this time is called indigenisation. The party hopes to
win the
coming elections on the basis of this. But the general public has
seen
through this ruse and now know for a fact that indigenisation is only
meant
to hoodwink them into a revolutionary fervour while only rewarding the
few
sharks that lead the party.
Zanu PF’s call for elections this year is
driven by this desperate attempt
to use indigenisation as its trump card
before the people see though the
deceit.
Already the uncalculated call
for indigenisation has resulted in a huge
capital flight. After the
formation of the inclusive government some two
years ago the country looked
to be on the threshold of development. There
was so much goodwill among the
people and also among investors. But
ultranationalist pronouncements on
indigenisation have scared everyone away.
Jobs have not been created
as factories have by and large remained closed.
Investment in our mines has
stagnated, if not regressed, in the past two
years. The impact of these
developments have been felt most acutely by the
generality of our
people.
Zanu PF is now aware that indigenisation will be a hard sale
if elections
are delayed much longer hence its feverish call for early
elections when it
is patently clear that an election this year is
practically impossible. Even
if it gets its way, the elections will not meet
the minimum standards
required by our neighbours in the Southern African
Development Community
(Sadc).
This means the country will be
back to the stagnation of the past decade.
Zanu PF no longer has a
credible ideology to sell to the people. It will
depend on instilling fear
in the hearts of the electorate. It will also
depend on hate speech which is
already being spewed in the public media by
disgraced former Information
minister Jonathan Moyo with impunity. But these
two, fear and hatemongering,
cannot continue to win an election for Zanu PF;
the people’s thinking has
evolved and they have formulated strategies to
counter intimidation and
disinformation.
Sadc is right; there shouldn’t be room for any other
sham election in
Zimbabwe. Only when all the basic tenets of electoral
democracy — such as
voter secrecy and freedom of choice and assembly — are
re-established can we
begin talk of a new election. Elections ought to be
based on principles
rather then on fanciful pronouncements of
ultra-nationalism such as
indigenisatio.