Associated Press
(AP) – 7
hours ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe state prosecutors on Monday
withdrew
treason charges against six activists accused of plotting an
"Egyptian-style" uprising to oust Zimbabwe's longtime President Robert
Mugabe.
Earlier in the day, prosecutors also announced they were
withdrawing
corruption charges against Zimbabwe's energy minister, Elton
Mangoma, a
founder of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's former opposition
party.
A former legislator in Tsvangirai's party was also among the six
activists
who were charged with inciting violence instead of treason for
hold a
meeting in February to watch videos of unrest in Egypt and discuss
democratic reform.
Tsvangirai's party cited both cases as
intimidation against its ministers
and officials.
Police arrested 39
people at the meeting Feb. 19 but all were later freed on
bail. Most of the
suspects reported being assaulted in police custody. Six
still face treason
charges.
Treason carries a possible death sentence in Zimbabwe, while the
new charges
carry a penalty of imprisonment or a fine.
The six will
be tried on Aug. 22.
Last month, Mangoma was acquitted on lack of
evidence over allegations that
he bypassed governmental procedures by buying
gasoline from a South African
firm in January. That decision led State
Prosecutor Christopher Mutangadura
to announce the dropping of the second
set of charges.
(AFP) – 4 hours
ago
HARARE — Prosecutors on Monday withdrew charges against Zimbabwe
Energy
Minister Elton Mangoma who had been accused of breaching tender
regulations
by halting bids to supply electricity meters.
"We have
withdrawn the charges against him because the charges against him
were
almost similar to those he was acquitted on recently," prosecutor Chris
Mutangadura told reporters at the high court in Harare.
Mangoma, a
top aide of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, was accused of
breaching
tender regulations when he cancelled an invitation for the supply
of
pre-paid electricity meters to the power utility ZESA.
The prepaid meters
are meant to make consumers pay for electricity before
use, as a way of
improving revenues at ZESA, which has trouble collecting on
unpaid
bills.
Last month a high court judge cleared Mangoma of another charge of
breaching
tender regulations following the purchase of five million litres
of diesel
from a South African company when Zimbabwe's fuel reserves ran dry
in 2009.
His arrest and detention in March drew an angry reaction from
Tsvangirai,
who called for new elections and said it was time for a
"divorce" in the
unity government with veteran President Robert Mugabe.
Monday, 18 July 2011
The state has withdrawn its case at the High
Court against the MDC Deputy Treasurer-General and Energy and Power Development
Minister, Hon. Elton Mangoma who was facing trumped up charges in a tender deal
involving the purchase of electricity meters. Hon. Mangoma was arrested early
this year and the trial was to start at the High Court today.
However,
before the start of the trial, Chris Mutangadura of the Attorney-General’s
Office indicated that the state was withdrawing from prosecuting Hon. Mangoma.
The withdrawal of the case by the state is a clear indication that the arrest of
Hon. Mangoma was politically motivated.
A few weeks ago Hon. Mangoma was
acquitted at the High Court on charges of purchasing five million litres of fuel
from a South African company in order to save a national crisis as the country
had run out of fuel stocks. Hon. Mangoma was arrested twice this year and
remanded in custody for close to two weeks for the two trumped-up
charges.
The MDC stands vindicated that the concocted charges against
Hon. Mangoma were political and that his only crime was that he is a senior MDC
official.
Hon. Mangoma’s acquittal is an indictment on the person and
office of the Attorney-General who has wasted the taxpayer’s money in
besmirching and persecuting an innocent Zimbabwean. It is no wonder that the
so-called abuse of office charges against Hon. Mangoma have failed to stick,
just as similar cases against thousands of MDC activists have crumbled like a
deck of cards over the past 12 years.
MDC cadres have always been
subjected to all sorts of trials and tribulations. They have faced persecution,
murder, arrests and arson but they have always prevailed because no one can stop
an idea whose hour has come.
Together, united , winning , voting
for real change!!!
--
MDC Information &
Publicity Department
Harvest House
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
18/07/2011 09:31:00 ZERUBABEL
MUDZINGWA
HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday said
politically-motivated trumped up charges will not distract him from carrying
out national business.
The Premier said he was aware Zanu PF had
upped its game by threatening his
life and office by flagging false charges
against him.
His spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, said the latest charge
of embezzlement
of funds meant to cover renovations at his official
residence in Highlands,
were part of the grand scheme to arrest him ahead of
impending elections.
Tamborinyoka said the allegations carried in
yesterday’s edition of the
Sunday Times were “part of the political threats
to his life and office”.
“The PM is not shaken at all. In fact, he has said
before that he is
prepared to rot in jail if arrested for political
reasons,” he said.
However, police spokesperson Andrew Phiri yesterday
said he was not aware
Tsvangirai was under investigation.
“I am not
aware of this issue,” he said.
However, according to reports, the plot
was being masterminded by Zanu PF
die-hard supporters in government
determined to nail him before the next
round of elections.
Branded a
“national security threat” by his political nemesis in Zanu PF,
Tsvangirai
has been under pressure of late due to various plots to arrest
him and his
MDC-T top officials.
In the latest case, Tsvangirai is reportedly being
probed for allegedly
siphoning off funds during the renovation of the
property, which was
acquired for him by the government in 2009 after
President Robert Mugabe
declined to let him stay at either Zimbabwe State
House or any other State
houses.
“The PM is not directly involved in
the project. Government is renovating
the house on his behalf,” said
Tamborinyoka.
“The Prime Minister is prepared to answer to any question
relating to his
house in Buhera (his rural home) and his house in Strathaven
where he has
been living, notwithstanding the existence of the Prime
Minister’s House in
Harare.
Anything to do with renovations at his
official residence in Harare has to
do with the relevant government
departments and in this case the Ministry of
Public Works who are handling
all the renovations.”
A few weeks ago, Tsvangirai survived yet another
plot to arrest him over
allegations of labelling President Mugabe a liar.
Instead, police descended
on Jameson Timba, Minister of State in the Prime
Minister’s Office, and only
released him after a High Court
order.
Over the past months, Tsvangirai has been a target for
politically-motivated
arrests — with charges ranging from corruption,
plotting to topple the
government, attacking judges to sex scandals. -
NewsDay
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona
Sibanda
18 July 2011
Four Bulawayo based journalists arrested by the
police in Ntabazinduna, last
week Friday were ordered to delete photographs
from their cameras, after
they had gone to cover a story about the eviction
of a policeman for playing
MDC music.
Nqobani Ndlovu from the
Zimbabwe Standard, Pindai Dube of the Daily News and
freelancers Pamenus
Tuso and Oscar Nkala were picked up around 11am and only
released after
5pm.
‘We were never put in cells but they put us in an office where they
interrogated us for hours. They questioned our motive in covering the
eviction of the police officer from his house,’ one of the journalists told
us.
Police had to summon an officer who had knowledge of digital
cameras to
ensure that all pictures taken of Assistant Inspector Tedius
Chisango were
deleted.
Not all of the pictures were deleted however,
leaving at least two that were
used in the papers on Sunday. Meanwhile the
police officer evicted from the
house told SW Radio Africa that he is in a
process of engaging lawyers to
fight his dismissal from the
force.
When Assistant Inspector Chisango was evicted from his house he
was dumped
in the bush near Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot on the
outskirts of
Bulawayo on Friday.
‘They said I was a threat to
national security and was causing despondency
in the police by having an MDC
song as my ringtone,’ Chisango said. The
fired policeman is originally from
Marondera.
His mobile phone ringtone was of the popular MDC song, Simudza
Ngerengere,
by MDC- T MP Paul Madzore.
Police allege that Chisango,
who worked as medical officer at Ntabazinduna
Police Training Depot, also
kept music that promoted the MDC-T on his
computer.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
18/07/2011 00:00:00
by Staff
Reporter
EMMERSON Mnangagwa, long accused of being one of the chief
architects of
Gukurahundi, waded into a political storm on Monday after
telling a
newspaper that the 1980s genocide was a “closed
chapter”.
In an extraordinary attack, the MDC led by Welshman Ncube said
the Defence
Minister’s comments were “an insult to the victims of Zanu PF’s
grand plan
of exterminating the Ndebele people”.
The opposition ZAPU,
whose former leader Joshua Nkomo was forced into exile
by President Robert
Mugabe’s death squads in 1983, said Mnangagwa’s comments
were “provocative”,
adding that they were “tantamount to a criminal
acquitting himself even
before he has been arrested and tried”.
In an interview with the
state-run Chronicle newspaper, Mnangagwa said a
“unity accord” signed in
1987 between Mugabe’s ZANU and Nkomo’s ZAPU to end
the massacre of more than
20,000 people in Matabeleland and Midlands should
have been the last word on
the matter.
“We don’t want to undermine efforts by our national leaders
to reunite the
people. If we try to open healed wounds by discussing such
issues, we will
be undermining and failing to recognise the statesmanship
exhibited by
President Mugabe and Dr Nkomo when they signed the unity accord
in 1987,”
Mnangagwa said.
“The people who very vocal on the
Gukurahundi have selfish agendas that they
are pushing. They want to divide
the nation by making unfounded
allegations.”
The comments touched
off a furious row, with the MDC and ZAPU both issuing
separate statements to
condemn Mnangagwa, who was State Security Minister
when Mugabe sent a North
Korean-trained army taskforce to Matabeleland under
the pretext of hunting
down less than two dozen dissident supporters of
Nkomo who refused to put
down arms after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
“The MDC believes it is
not for perpetrators of the genocide to tell the
victims to forgive and
forget about what happened to them. It is a sad irony
to note that those
that are pronouncing closure of the chapter are the same
people that
presided over the recruitment and training of operatives for the
massacre of
our people,” the party’s deputy secretary general Moses Mzila
Ndlovu
said.
He added: “No amount of attacks on those that search for truths and
call for
justice for the victims of this massacre will wash away the blood
of our
people from the hands of Mnangwaga and his group.
“The party
takes Mnangwagwa’s assertion as an insult to the victims of Zanu
PF’s grand
plan of exterminating the Ndebele people. We believe that this is
a very
insensitive and deliberate attack on the people of Matabeleland and
the
Midlands who painfully suffered.”
The MDC said “reconciliation can’t and
shouldn’t be imposed on people”,
adding: “The victims must be given a
platform to fully disclose how they
were brutally tortured, their relatives
mercilessly butchered and how they
want the issue resolved.”
In a
separate statement, ZAPU spokesman Methuseli Moyo said: “We find
Mnangagwa’s
comments about Gukurahundi provocative, irresponsible and not
fit to be
uttered by someone who knows for sure that 20,000 innocent people
lost their
lives at the hands of the Fifth Brigade.
“What makes his remarks more
provocative is that they come from someone who
played a key role in the
execution of the genocide, and has never even
bothered to say ‘I am sorry’
to the people of Matabeleland and the
Midlands.”
ZAPU’s new leader,
Dumiso Dabengwa, who was detained by Mugabe’s government
for four years in
1982 despite being acquitted of treason charges, announced
in May 2009 that
the party was withdrawing from the 1987 accord, although
some senior leaders
have elected to remain in Zanu PF.
Moyo added: “Mnangagwa needs to know
that John Nkomo, Simon Khaya Moyo, Cain
Mathema, Naison Ndlovu and other
ex-Zapu leaders still in Zanu PF are doing
so in their individual
capacities. They have no legitimacy whatsoever to
represent anyone in
Matabeleland or in ZAPU, not even their own families.
“ZAPU is never for
retribution but truth, compensation, healing and
reconciliation. What
Mnangagwa refers to as national healing is just a
futile Zanu PF project to
hoodwink people. Sadly for them, no one has been
hoodwinked.”
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Alex Bell
18 July
2011
A group of Chinese miners said to be prospecting for uranium in
northern
Zimbabwe, have been accused of poisoning elephants in the area and
removing
their tusks.
At least nine elephants in the Mushumbi Pools
area have been killed in
recent weeks, while several herbivores have also
apparently died after
eating poisoned grass. According to the chairman of
the Zimbabwe
Conservation Task Force, Johnny Rodrigues, the Chinese miners
have been
leaving poisoned loaves of bread for the elephants to eat.
Rodrigues told SW
Radio Africa on Monday that after killing the elephants,
the Chinese were
hacking off and taking away their tusks.
“They are
poisoning food and putting it along paths commonly used by the
elephants,
resulting in the animals having terrible deaths. It is a disaster
in the
making because other animals are affected,” he said.
He explained that
the poisoning is a serious threat to other wildlife,
especially carnivores,
who could also get sick by eating the contaminated
elephant
carcasses.
Rodrigues added that the local villagers too could also face
serious risk if
they ate the elephant meat.
“There is no food in
Zimbabwe so fresh meat like this of course is tempting.
We understand that
the police have been to the area and told people not to
eat the meat, so we
could have avoided a serious event,” Rodrigues said.
The death of the
elephants in Mushumbi Pools comes as rampant poaching
continues to affect
animals across the country. Most recently a suspected
poaching syndicate has
hit the Gonarezhou National Park, which is part of
the Great Limpopo
Transfrontier Conservation Area. Late last year ten
elephants were killed in
Gonarezhou and at least six more are said to have
been killed in the same
area, in the last month alone.
Meanwhile, two more elephants were last
month brutally butchered at the
Chiredzi River Conservancy, which is set to
form part of the planned
Transfrontier 'Peace Park'.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
18 July 2011
A group of war
vets and poor people are reportedly occupying a farm owned by
businessman
Philip Chiyangwa and have vowed to stay put, despite his efforts
to evict
them.
According to the Daily News Chiyangwa claims he bought Waterfalls’
Nyarungu
Estate and successfully applied for an eviction order from the High
Court.
Rather than make plans to leave, the war vets have since registered a
housing co-operative and claim that the land was gazetted by government so
Chiyangwa cannot claim it.
The occupiers have gone on to mould bricks
for building their houses and say
Chiyangwa’s bid to remove them from their
homes is tantamount to creating a’
black versus black farm grab.’
One
of the occupiers, More Everson, accused Chiyangwa of derailing the land
reform programme saying they will not obey any orders from anyone except
Mugabe. “I will do anything in my powers to stop him from taking our land,”
Everson said.
Under the controversial land-grab policy, ZANU PF
encouraged its supporters
and war vets to grab farms from white farmers.
However, recent developments
show that they are getting a taste of their own
medicine.
In addition to the Chiyangwa case, recently ZANU PF MP for
Marondera East
Tracy Mutinhiri, had to seek police protection from a ZANU PF
mob which
threatened to take over her Tapiwanashe farm. Her former husband
is retired
army General Ambrose Mutinhiri who, with the help of war vets,
seized the
property in from its legal owner Mr Cartwright at the beginning
of the land
invasions.
Mutinhiri is understood to be under attack
from within ZANU PF, following
allegations that she is too close to the
MDC-T.
http://www.iol.co.za/
July 18 2011 at 10:27am
Scientists
are investigating reports of confirmed malaria cases in two
Zimbabwean
cities.
Scientists are investigating reports of confirmed malaria cases
in two
Zimbabwean cities, Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on
Monday.
This followed reports that some people who never left Harare and
Bulawayo
had their blood samples examined and confirmed that they were
suffering from
malaria.
Speaking at a Global Fund conference,
information and education officer in
the ministry Fortunate Manjoro
confirmed that there had been cases of people
who never travelled outside
the capital cities being diagnosed with the
disease.
“The malaria
stratification map needs new work as movements of people may
have changed
the scenario in which there were places like Harare and
Bulawayo, which were
known to be non-malaria transmission zones... but now
there have been cases
of malaria among people who have never travelled
outside the cities,” she
said.
“This may be an indication that the two areas are now also malaria
transmission zones.”
Manjoro said that border areas were the most
vulnerable. Places like
Manicaland, Mudzi, Beitbridge, Victoria Falls Hwange
and Kariba were among
the most affected areas for 2009 with some areas
recording up to 365 deaths
in the year.
Some areas of Harare like
Kuwadzana had perennial mosquito problems
especially during the rainy season
but these had been previously viewed as a
nuisance rather than a grave
health hazard, according to the report. - Sapa
http://www.iol.co.za/
July 18 2011 at 11:27am
.
Some 15
000 teaching posts remain vacant in government schools in Zimbabwe
owing to
reluctance by school leavers to join the profession, Zimbabwe's
Herald
Online reported.
Some 15 000 teaching posts remain vacant in government
schools in Zimbabwe
owing to reluctance by school leavers to join the
profession, Zimbabwe's
Herald Online reported on Monday.
The vacant
posts were increasing despite government granting amnesty to
teachers who
left the country at the height of the economic meltdown.
A principal
director in the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture,
Sibonginkosi
Mutasa, said that out of the 111,000
teaching posts in the country,
96,000 were filled by qualified teachers.
The remaining 15,000 posts were
vacant and unqualified teachers were also
shunning the offers. This
negatively affected the country's pass rates.
Education, Sport, Arts and
Culture deputy minister Lazarus Dokora attributed
the shortage to brain
drain.
He said teacher training colleges, which were producing
5000
teachers annually, were also failing to meet their target as the
number of
pupils starting school was increasing.
“The sector is in
dire need of qualified teachers. The optimistic view that
some teachers
would come back has no relationship to reality, rendering the
amnesty
useless.
“Brain drain has wreaked havoc in the sector. New graduates are
leaving for
foreign lands and others are joining other sectors. The number
of graduates
is too low compared to pupils starting school. We receive just
above 5000
teachers each year and with this trend continuing, a perfect
balance will
not be achievable,” he said. - Sapa
http://www.swradioafrica.com
by Irene Madongo
18 July
2011
The MDC-T says it is still trying to locate an activist who was
abducted
last week by the police.
The party said that on Wednesday
night Allan Svotwa, the MDC-T district
chairperson for Headlands, was taken
by police officers from his house.
There are fears that he is being tortured
by his captors and is being
deliberately denied access to medication and a
lawyer.
On Monday Thabitha Khumalo, the MDC-T deputy spokesperson said:
“We are
still trying to locate him. Our foot soldiers are still on the
ground. It
becomes difficult because as far as we are concerned, the police
are aware
of where [he is].”
“We are concerned that his rights are
being violated because he’s got a
right to a lawyer and rights to medical
attention. Normally when they are
hiding this long it means he is severely
injured,” she said.
Khumalo added that the eight MDC supporters who are
still in remand prison
in relation to the death of a police inspector also
continue to be denied
access to medication; this is despite a court ordering
that they receive
treatment.
Several of those detained have been
severely assaulted. Their lawyer said
one of those held, Yvonne Musarurwa,
has a fractured hand and blood is
coming out of a wound on her right leg.
Another, Cynthia Manjoro needs
treatment for a lump on her knee after she
was beaten with a bottle and
MDC-T Councillor Tungamirai Madzokere,
sustained serious head wounds, which
other inmates say are affecting his
memory.
Up to 24 supporters were arrested after the inspector was killed.
Of those,
16 were granted bail leaving the eight behind. All of them deny
the
allegations, and the party has said the arrests are a ploy to portray
the
MDC-T as a violent party.
“It’s a sign to show that they have no
evidence against them, so they want
to brutalise them so that they submit to
killing the police officer. If at
all they had enough evidence, these people
should have been taken for the
trial by now,” Khumalo
said.
Meanwhile, two other MDC-T members are still recovering following
an attack
by ZANU PF youth militia on Thursday, she said. The party reported
that the
pair, Abel Samakande the Mutoko East district chairperson, and
Steven Zenda
the Mutoko East District Organising Secretary, were severely
assaulted at
the Mbare Musika bus terminus in Harare.
The MDC-T says
it has given the police the names and address of ZANU PF
supporters who have
attacked its members, but no action has been taken.
Efforts were made to
reach the police but they were unavailable for comment.
http://www.radiovop.com
By Ngoni Chanakira, Juru
Growth Point, July 18, 2011 - More than 25 shabbily
dressed and visibly
hungry refugees from Ethiopia are passing through
Zimbabwe almost daily
using the Juru Growth Point Highway.
The refugees, old men, women and
children, say they are en-route to South
Africa where they "hope" to settle
soon, investigations reveal.
A trip accompanying the refugees on parts of
their long journey by Radio
VOP, showed that the individuals come from very
"poor families in Ethiopia
are unemployed and are political individuals who
have virtually nothing to
lose from their quick departure".
They
cannot speak English and use a translator whom they pay about US$2
daily in
each country travelled through. The Zimbabwean translator was known
simply
as "Billy".
Billy, it later emerged after asking several questions, comes
from a broken
home in Mozambique.
The witty boy had "falsely"
informed the refugees that he could speak
English and, therefore, could take
them "safely" across Zimbabwe to South
Africa where he would pass them over
to yet another translator based there.
Little did they know that for
"witty" Billy this was full time work since he
is unemployed in
Mozambique.
"They share everything they can get their hands on," Billy
told Radio VOP in
an exclusive interview when the refugees had stopped for
some water at Blue
Ridge Shopping Complex along the highway.
Blue
Ridge Shopping Centre is owned by fugitive business tycoon, James
Makamba, a
former ZBC Disk Jockey (DJ), who became an overnight millionaire
in Zimbabwe
and began his own television station rivalling the monopolistic
ZBC
TV.
Makamba, owner of a huge farm behind Blue Ridge, is understood to be
in
London in the United Kingdom (UK) where he fled Zimbabwe allegedly
fearing
political persecution from State Security agents after he had been
specified
by the Government of President Robert Mugabe. Makamba has since
been
de-specified.
Last night we only managed to get some packets of
maputi (popped maize) when
we passed through Juru Growth Point," Billy said.
"We got these after we had
begged some businessmen there. They then also
gave us water to drink and
hoped us well on our trip to Harare.
"But
I am not stopping in Harare. In fact I am taking them to Bulawayo and
then
finally to Beitbridge where I will leave them for another translator in
South Africa. It is a very long trip," he said, sometimes speaking to this
Reporter in Shona, a major language also used in poor
Mozambique.
Billy revealed that food was very difficult to come across
especially at
night on the long trip.
He said, in an interview, that
the refugees had fled starvation and alleged
poor governance from the
current government in power.
Billy said the refugees "thought" that since
their former President,
Mengistu Haille Mariam, was given shelter in
Zimbabwe by President Robert
Mugabe, they could also receive the
same.
Some pilots flying the national carrier Air Zimbabwe and the Air
Force of
Zimbabwe (AFZ) led by Perence Shiri, were trained in Ethiopia
before
Independence in 1980.
"They say they want to see President
Megistu Haille Mariam when we get to
Harare," Billy said in the
interview.
But Mengistu is nowhere to be "easily" seen in Harare. He is
housed under
close State Security agents in the plush Gun Hill suburb in
Harare's
Northern Suburbs near The Harare Mayor's Mansion built by the late
Harare
Executive Mayor, Solomon Tawengwa.
However, investigations by
this Reporter show that the road leading to where
Mengistu used to reside is
now quite easily accessible even by gardeners and
house maids working in Gun
Hill.
The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) soldiers guarding the road are
sometimes
"nowhere" to be seen because they would have gone shopping for
cigarettes at
Sam Levy's Village in Borrowdale suburb, about five kilometres
away from the
mansion secured for the "former dictator
Megistu".
Mengistu was given refugee status in Zimbabwe by his political
friend Zanu
(PF) boss, Mugabe. The 87-year-old Mugabe agreed to keep him in
this country
until the political and economic clouds hovering over Ethiopia
had cleared.
Nothing has been heard about Mengistu's
whereabouts.
The last time information was gathered from State Security
agents was that
he had been given a lucrative commercial farm somewhere in
the plush Mazowe
farming area - the area reserved mainly for prominent top
army bosses where
"grabbed commercial farms" from white commercial farmers
were dished out by
President Mugabe.
"We are just stopping here for
water," Billy said in the interview. "I think
Harare is near now because
they tell me that it is only about 20km from here
(Blue Ridge Shopping
Centre). We will get there by tonight."
Billy and his new found poor and
hungry friends once they arrive in Harare
they will be faced with yet
another task - this time the more than 420km
gruelling trek to Bulawayo -
the City of Kings.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Magunje, July 18, 2011 -
American talk show host Oprah Winfrey is
bankrolling the construction of a
rural Zimbabwean school to help her
favourite talk show guest realise her
childhood dream.
Winfrey named Tererai Trent her “All time favourite
guest” in 2009 and with
this came a US$1,5 million windfall to help Trent
re-build her dilapidated
primary school in Magunje.
Trent appeared on
the world acclaimed Oprah Winfrey television show where
she told of her
moving life story. She told the acclaimed talk show host who
has interviewed
some of the world’s most popular individuals how she was
married at 11 and
had five children in quick succession. She also spoke
about how she was
repeatedly abused by her husband in her marriage.
So touching was her
story that Winfrey had no option but to name her as her
favourite guest of
all time and with this came a $1,5 million donation from
her Oprah Winfrey
Foundation to help Trent who has since re-married to build
her childhood
primary school, Matau in Magunje.
The Oprah Winfrey Foundation is a
philanthropic institution owned by
Winfrey. She uses the foundation to help
children and the underprivileged
out of poverty.
Save the Children
will build the school which will transform the face of
education in rural
Magunje where hundreds of children learn using the floor
as both the desk
and chair. More so, they have to share books and other
learning
material.
A ground making ceremony to set the idea of a brand new Matau
Primary School
was held last Friday.
Save the Children Zimbabwe
country Director, Sharon Hauser said Trent was an
inspiration to many young
Zimbabweans.
“Tererai reminds us that education is a universal human
right that holds the
key to breaking the cycle of poverty, and that
education shapes our current
and future leaders,” said Hauser.
The
Matau Primary School was destroyed by the rains in 2009. The storm
destroyed
the school’s roof and with the biting winter weather in the
country at the
moment, school children at the school are forced to learn in
the
open.
The donated money will among other things be used to repair and
build school
buildings, construct a new playground, latrines and hand
washing stations,
provide desks, chairs and books for all the children,
train teachers to help
young children prepare for school and to help older
school children improve
their reading skills. It will also be used to create
a culture of reading,
both inside and outside the classroom, by engaging the
whole community
through our successful new Literacy Boost
programme.
Winfrey and Trent are expected to visit the project to monitor
progress on
the project in the near future according to Save the Children
officials.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Masvingo, July 18, 2011 -
Rogue soldiers from the Zimbabwe National Army’(ZNA)’s
4-2 Infantry
battalion in Gutu went on the rampage and beat up patrons at
Big Wave night
club on Saturday after they were frustrated by government
failure to
increase their salaries.
The security forces who expected to find a pay
rise on Friday allegedly
started beating up patrons in the club accusing
them of not protesting to
put up pressure to increase salaries for civil
servants.
A patron who broke his arm and sought medical attention in
Masvingo said the
soldiers who were about twenty closed the club’s exits and
beat up people
accusing them of being cowards.
“They were drunk and
ordered the disk jockey to stop the music before moving
around beating us
randomly. The y accused us of failing to protest against
the government
calling for pay rise for them as they are not allowed to
strike by military
rules,’’ said Dadirai Gozho a victim of the assault.
Gozho said about 10
people were seriously injured and detained at Gutu
mission hospital where
they are receiving treatment.
He added that the soldiers shouted that
civil servants and other workers in
the country should go to strike and
accused them of being sell-outs because
they did not join teachers when they
took a job action organised by militant
Progressive Teachers’ Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ) last month.
Gozho also alleged that the soldiers asked
them where they were getting
money to drink beer every day when they were
paid a meagre $180.
“They also asked us where we get money to drink every
day when they were
struggling and cited that as a reason why we were not
pressurising
government to deal with the issue of pay rise for its
workers,” he added.
ZNA provincial spokesperson, Warrant Officer Kingston
Chivave could not be
reached for comment but police in Gutu confirmed the
incident and said
investigations to bring the culprits to book were under
way.
This is not the first time soldiers have wrecked havoc to
unsuspecting
revelers in different night clubs in the
province.
Two months ago soldiers from the provincial headquarters
severely assaulted
patrons at Ritz night club in Masvingo city centre while
others were beaten
at Labamba night spot in Chiredzi military men from
Buffalo range camp.
http://www.radiovop.com
By Ngoni Chanakira, Juru Growth Point -
July 18, 2011 - Juru Growth Point
located 50km outside the capital city,
Harare, is very much a Zanu (PF)
stronghold.
Virtually all
vehicles, whether they be long haulage trucks, passenger cars,
or buses,
going to or through that area carry a Zimbabwean flag on their
windscreens
for all and sundry to clearly see lest they will be suspected to
belong to
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. Vehiles carry the
Zimbabwean
National Flag mainly because its colours - red, green and
yellow -
"identify" with the former ruling party, Zanu (PF), whose colours
are also
contained in it.
A visit to the growth point, once very notorious for
prostitution by young
unemployed girls at night, shows that virtually all
motor vehicles
especially those belonging to individuals residing at the
growth point have
the "flag yaMudhara" stuck on their windscreens. Mudhara
is the "code-name"
given to President Robert Mugabe the 87-year-old boss of
the former ruling
party.
The Zimbabwean flag has become very popular
on highways to Zanu (PF)
strongholds because supporters are buying it in
bulk.
"If you do not have such a flag on your car then people, especially
the
Youths, will think that you are from the MDC-T," said one unemployed
youth.
"And, to make it worse, if you are indeed from the MDC-T, then you
are
definitely not welcome to Juru Growth Point," he told Radio VOP in an
exclusive interview at the busy centre, which is a hive of activity at
night.
"Morgan Tsvangirai is not welcome here at all and if he does
come here we
will do something to him or his agents, be they MPs or even
civilians. They
(MDC-T) do not belong here because they are all sell-outs
and belong to the
British of Tony Blair and the Americans of George
Bush".
The MDC-T political party is led by former Zimbabwe of Congress of
Trade
Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General, Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai is now
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister in the President Mugabe's Government of National
Unity (GNU).
Tony Blair is former Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom while George Bush,
on ther hand, is a former President of the United
States of America (US).
Both politicians were strongly disliked by the Zanu
PF boss, President
Robert Mugabe.
President Mugabe declared a
"silent" war against the Westerners for
allegedly making his nation of more
than 12 million people "poor".
Investigations also revealed that some of
these vehicles do not stop at road
blocks or pay the US$1 needed at Toll
Gates leading outside Harare. One such
Toll Gate is located beside the
entrance of a lavish protected farm which
allegedly belongs to the Governor
of The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Dr
Gideon Gono.
The
meat/poultry farm known as "Meatlands (Private) Limited" is located on
the
10km peg from Harare and 30km from Juru Growth Point on the highway.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Chengetai Zvauya, Senior Writer
Monday, 18 July
2011 14:09
HARARE - Zanu PF spin doctor and serial political turncoat
Jonathan Moyo’s
future in the former ruling party hangs by the thread with
top officials in
the party baying for his blood saying he was destroying the
organisation
from within.
But President Robert Mugabe, who
despite resistance from colleagues in the
Zanu PF presidium, forced the
controversial Moyo back into the politburo, is
together with some members of
the military, strongly defending him.
That Mugabe is under pressure to
expel Moyo from Zanu PF — for the second
time in six years — became clearer
at the party’s central committee meeting
in Harare where the 87-year-old
leader was forced to make a passionate
appeal to spare him.
The
Tsholotsho Member of Parliament is accused of coming up with dubious and
sometimes chilling succession plots within Zanu PF including appearing to
speak on behalf of the military in long winding articles in the state
media.
Zanu PF officials, including vice Presidents Joice Mujuru and John
Nkomo and
other influential party officials, are said to be worried that
Moyo, through
his brutal attacks on regional leaders especially President
Jacob Zuma of
South Africa, has seen Sadc alienating Mugabe and Zanu
PF.
The Daily News understands that some central committee and politburo
members
had approached the Zanu PF leadership, where they were reportedly
pushing
for Moyo’s ouster arguingKnives out for Moyo Knives out for Jonathan
Moyo
that he was on a mission to destroy the party.
“We are shocked
why President Mugabe could defend such a man. Firstly, he
has caused serious
divisions in the party because of his jumping from one
corner to another
seeking relevance and power.He is also causing problems
for the party and
right now Sadc leaders are always against us because of
Moyo’s hate language
against the likes of Zuma.
“This is a man who has said President Mugabe
behaves like a cornered rat, he
has said the President is too tired to rule
this country and has accused our
leader of being incoherent and
disoriented."
“He has accused President Mugabe of being a liar and yet he
finds the
courage to have a minister arrested for the same
things."
“Nobody in the history of this country has attacked and insulted
President
Mugabe the way Jonathan (Moyo) did and the way he will do when he
leaves
Zanu PF."
“Nobody, not even Tsvangirai has humiliated and
embarrassed the president
like this guy yet we are still being fooled that
he is one of us. People
must investigate who he is working for and what he
wants to achieve,” said a
top Zanu PF official.
Moyo was also accused
by Mugabe in 2005 of plotting a coup against the
veteran leader.
The
Daily News understands that the Moyo issue was so hotly debated among
members that when Mugabe got wind of it, he immediately launched an
unprecedented defence of the party’s propagandist and ordered his people not
to attack him in the media.
Mugabe particularly made reference to the
Daily News story three weeks ago
in which the party’s spokesperson Rugare
Gumbo said Moyo was not allowed to
speak on behalf of the
party.
Gumbo also said if Moyo wanted to be party spokesperson, he had to
wait for
the next congress.
In defending Moyo, Mugabe told his
party’s central committee on Friday that
senior party members should desist
from making statements denouncing each
other as it causes disharmony in the
party.
“I was reading in the Press about the attacks that were made on
Jonathan by
our secretary for information and this should stop."
“We
should criticise each other in our private meetings like the central
committee not in the public because it is not good. I hope that you
understand what I am telling you. Why do you continue to do that?” asked
Mugabe.
“In our private meetings we can criticise each other but do
not go out in
the public and criticise your comrade.
“As Zanu PF
members we must not do so, especially between ourselves as we
are senior
members of the party,’’ said Mugabe.
Mugabe said he had himself suffered
the same ordeal from other Sadc
presidents when he embarked on the land
reform programme as he was being
accused of destabilising the
region.
“I remember very well that the late Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa
verbally attacked me personally in public forums and when he said
our
country was a sinking titanic ship. I never responded to his statements
but
I waited until I had the opportunity to talk to him in our own private
meeting and this was when I criticised him too,’’ said Mugabe.
Moyo
has of late been denouncing Sadc leaders over their insistence on
reforms in
Zimbabwe and central committee members were left wondering
whether Mugabe’s
defence of Moyo meant that he endorsed his attacks on
regional
leaders.
Moyo has also been writing articles in the state-controlled
media and
commenting on national television defending the security service
chiefs on
their political statements.
He has also gone on a crusade
intimidating and threatening private media
journalists who have been
reproducing his articles where he was heavily
attacking Mugabe.
Moyo
is known as a media hangman following his involvement in the crafting
of the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) which
was used
to shut down the popular Daily News and Daily News on Sunday and
other
publications.
As Minister of Information, Moyo at one time publicly
announced that the
Daily News needed to be silenced and hours later, the
newspaper’s printing
press was bombed.
Zanu PF sources say Moyo is
also being touted to replace Webster Shamu as
political
commissar.
Some loyal Zanu PF officials told the Daily News at the
central committee
meeting that giving Moyo the critical position would be
dangerous because
they are not sure of his mission in the beleaguered
party.
“Has the party forgotten that it was only in 2004 that he (Moyo)
tried and
failed to topple President Mugabe, together with members of his
faction?
“When he was fired from Zanu PF he tried to join the MDC and
demanded a very
senior post but they refused and now he is back in Zanu PF
causing commotion
and division,” the source said.
Moyo’s commentaries
of insulting and denigrating Sadc leaders and
journalists are seen by Zanu
PF officials as a way of seeking patronage
with Mugabe and the army service
chiefs.
Nobody, not even Tsvangirai has humiliated and embarrassed the
president
like this guy yet we are still being fooled that he is one of us.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona Sibanda
18
July 2011
Lindiwe Zulu, the International Relations advisor to South
African President
Jacob Zuma, on Monday dismissed as ‘a non event’ the
latest verbal attack on
her by ZANU PF propaganda chief Jonathan
Moyo.
‘I’m sorry I have nothing to say concerning his attacks on me. I am
not
going on a platform to discuss what Jonathan Moyo says or has said as
that
is insignificant to the facilitation team,’ Zulu said.
Zulu, who
also acts a spokesperson of the SADC facilitation team, told SW
Radio Africa
they will not be bothered with what Moyo says because he’s not
part of the
GPA negotiators to the Zimbabwe crisis.
‘We have a very big task ahead of
us and that is getting Zimbabwe back to
normal. To be honest I aren’t got
time for Jonathan Moyo and I will not
waste time talking about individuals
who are outside the GPA unit,’ Zulu
added.
Moyo seems to have been
riled by Zulu’s alleged actions last week following
the arrest of MDC-N
leader Welshman Ncube and his delegation in Hwange.
Ncube, together with
GPA negotiators from his party Priscilla Misihairambwi
Mushonga and Moses
Mzila-Ndlovu, were arrested at a roadblock after they
held a party meeting
in Victoria Falls, which the police said was
unsanctioned.
Moyo wrote
that following the arrest Misihairambwi-Mushonga notified Zulu
who in turn
reportedly telephoned several authorities in Zimbabwe, including
the ZANU PF
negotiators, to complain about the arrests.
‘The point should be made
once again that Lindiwe Zulu is supposed to be the
spokesperson of the
facilitation team and not a SADC spokesperson and
certainly not an anti-ZANU
PF spokesperson which she has clearly become
through the pro regime change
media that now routinely use her as their
reckless mouthpiece,’ Moyo said in
the article.
The co-Minister of National Healing Moses Mzila-Ndlovu,
another victim of
Moyo’s attacks at the weekend, was less diplomatic than Ms
Zulu in his
comments about former Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo.
‘He is a man singing for his supper and the statements he has made
are an
indictment to ZANU PF that it’s a party running on empty as far as
ideas are
concerned,’ Mzila-Ndlovu said.
The national healing
Minister who described Moyo as a ‘loose canon’ said it
is a tragedy that
Zimbabwe has a party called ZANU PF with an individual
called Jonathan Moyo,
because they thrive on senselessness.
‘We realised that abundance of
senselessness in the politics of ZANU PF and
it is sad that Zimbabwe has had
to be projected through the eyes of the
likes of Jonathan Moyo,’ he
added.
He said the attack on Zulu was unwarranted and hypocritical of a
party that
has enjoyed so much support from the South African
government.
Mzila-Ndlovu claimed ZANU PF has not yet recovered from a
bashing it
received from the SADC Troika summit held in Livingstone,
Zambia.
‘Things have never been the same since that first shock
diplomatic treatment
when they were told straight in their eyes that they
needed to comply with
provisions of the GPA. From that moment on, ZANU PF
started behaving in a
strange way.’
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Thulani Munda Monday 18 July
2011
HARARE -- Zimbabwe’s former opposition MDC parties have
stepped up calls for
restructuring of the country’s security forces, in a
fresh row with
President Robert Mugabe over the future of the armed forces
that could tear
apart their fragile coalition government.
Mugabe last
weekend declared the armed forces off limits and said calls by
his coalition
partners for security reforms were influenced by their Western
backers keen
to weaken the veteran President and engineer his ouster from
office.
The security forces are seen as the true backbone of Mugabe’s
31-year rule
and have openly vowed to stop the veteran leader’s strongest
challenger for
power, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, from taking over the
presidency
should he win the next elections widely expected to take place
next year.
Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party on Monday vehemently rejected
Mugabe’s claims that
the security forces were untouchable and vowed to press
for comprehensive
reform and restructuring of the military to create a
non-partisan and truly
professional army that will not meddle in electoral
politics.
“The MDC is not bound by what President Mugabe may think or
desire,”
Douglass Mwonzora, the spokesman for Tsvangirai’s party, said,
dismissing
Mugabe’s statement that he would not tolerate security sector
reforms.
Mwonzora said a key objective of a power-sharing pact that gave
birth to
Zimbabwe’s unity government was that the administration would
implement
reforms to ensure the next elections are truly free and
fair.
“What this means is that all impediments (to holding of democratic
elections) including a partisan security sector must be removed,” Mwonzora
said. “We are saying this (security reforms) is essential to rid the
security forces of bi-partisanship and unprofessionalism which has seen them
meddling in electoral processes.”
Mwonzora spoke barely 48 hours
after the smaller MDC party led by Welshman
Ncube also rejected Mugabe’s
position that the armed forces cannot and
should not be tampered
with.
Addressing supporters in Harare’s Dzivarasekwa low-income suburb on
Saturday, Ncube said: “He (Mugabe) is Commander-in-Chief (of the armed
forces) by the choice of the people of Zimbabwe and when the people say we
must reform this institution, he must accede to it because he is not
Commander-in-Chief for himself.”
Zimbabwe’s powerful generals are
seen as wielding a de facto veto over the
transition process.
The
cabal of powerful generals, with the support of elements in Mugabe’s
ZANU
(PF) party, still believes that Tsvangirai – most likely to win a free
and
fair presidential ballot -- should not be permitted to lead the country
regardless of the outcome of elections and have in thinly veiled statements
threatened to topple him in a coup.
Analysts believe the generals’
strong opposition to change was driven by
fear that any new government,
especially one led by Tsvangirai, could
prosecute them for gross human
rights abuses committed in recent repression
campaigns, especially those
associated with violence-marred elections in
2008 as well as a 1980s
anti-insurgents campaign in the provinces of
Matabeleland and
Midlands.
At least 20 000 innocent civilians form the Ndebele ethnic
minority were
reportedly killed in the two provinces during the bloody
counter-insurgency
drive by the army. -- ZimOnline
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Chengetai Zvauya, Senior Writer
Monday,
18 July 2011 15:52
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has urged his
party to take up the issue of
sanctions with British courts saying it was
one of the best ways to have the
measures put on him and his inner cabal
removed.
Children of some Zanu PF officials are studying at various
universities in
western countries such as Canada, Australia, United States,
New Zealand and
the United Kingdom which have imposed financial and travel
restrictions on
Mugabe, Zanu PF officials and their
families.
Speaking at the Zanu PF central committee meeting on Friday,
Mugabe urged
party members to use courts in western capitals to fight
sanctions.
Mugabe said Zanu PF should take the fight to the westerners
starting with
the deportation of their children citing the case of deputy
Minister of
Public Works Aguy Georgias as an example to
follow.
Georgias fought against the deportation of his children from the
United
Kingdom through British courts.
Georgias’ children are
studying in the UK.
“We want to challenge the sanctions that are being
imposed against our
children.
“I know that senator Aguy Georgias
managed to do so as he won his court
case in London courts.
“The
children have their own rights in international and national laws.
“You
can challenge them on that principle that the alleged sins of the
fathers
should not be allowed to be spread to their children,” said Mugabe.
“If
you do that, you will get support and respect from many countries in the
world because there is no basis for the violation of the rights of our
children, in our sanctions fight against the West.”
Pro-democracy
groups have in the past launched campaigns for the deportation
of children
of Zanu PF officials from Western countries where they are
studying.
The groups particularly the Zimbabwe National Students
Union (Zinasu) argue
that such moves will force the government to improve
the quality of local
education which is reeling from teachers’ strikes, lack
of learning material
and dilapidated infrastructure.
Mugabe’s
comments come as Georgias is mounting a class action against
restrictions
imposed on his party’s officials in Brussels.
He is among several
government officials who have been taken off the
targeted
list.
Mugabe and nearly 170 of his lieutenants have been on US and
European Union
(EU) asset freeze and visa ban for the past decade and are
accused of gross
human rights violations.
For the past decade,
children of several senior government ministers and
senior officials have
been deported from western countries.
In February the EU relaxed the
restrictive measures and removed from the
list, wives of the senior military
officials, government ministers and
senior government officials.
http://www.financialgazette.co.zw
Friday, 15 July 2011 16:31
BULAWAYO - The
statue of the late vice president Joshua Nkomo will be
re-erected in
Bulawayo and at the controversial Karig-amombe Centre in
Harare before the
Heroes Day commemoration next month.
Thandi Nkomo-Ibrahim, the late vice
president's elder daughter, confirmed
that the family of the late
nationalist, the Joshua Nkomo Foundation and the
government had agreed to
unveil the statue before the commemoration of
Heroes Day next
month.
"This time around we have been consulted on the re-erection of the
statue in
Bulawayo and the constructors are going to work on the agreed size
of the
pedestal. The statue is okay but the pedestal was not befitting the
size of
the statue hence we agreed that the statue was not properly placed
and the
government considered that," she said.
In Bulawayo, the statue,
which had been erected at night, was pulled down
after the intervention of
Co-Home Affairs Minister, Kembo Mohadi, following
harsh criticism from
Nkomo's family and supporters.
Family members had alleged that the statue did
not capture the exact
attributes of the late vice president and that they
were not consulted or
involved in the project as the siblings of the late
hero.
At the Karigamombe centre in Harare, the project was aborted due to
various
political and legal problems.
The name Karigamombe was
popularised by the late nationalist Christopher
Ushewokunze in the early
1980s, a period during which ZANU-PF accused
Nko-mo's ZAPU of
orchestrating political disturbances in Mata-beleland
and some parts of
the Midlands.
The disturbances ended with the signing of the Unity Accord in
1987. While
the name was given to the building in honour of one President
Robert
Mugabe's forefathers, critics said it made connotations that the
former ZAPU
leader had been defeated.
The same statue would be re-erected
at the centre on a higher pedestal,
which the family belie-ves matches
Father Zimb-abwe's towering stature.
"As you know that there are different
types of statues and for our father,
the pedestal that is going to be
re-erected will befit the size of the
statue and street.
"After adjusting
the pedestal to befit Dr Nkomo's statue, the constructors
are going to
retain the statue that was brought down," added Nkomo-Ibrahim.
The statue is
currently kept at the National Museums and Monu-ments of
Zimbabwe in
Bulawayo.
Vice-President Nkomo died on July 1, 1999 in Harare at the age of
82 and was
laid to rest at the National Heroes Acre.
It is however, the
erection of the statue at Karigamombe Centre that is
likely to re-ignite
renewed controversy.
Plans to put the statue outside Karigamombe were aborted
last year due to
wrangles between the owners of the building and the Harare
City Council.
But there were also alleged disgruntlement from former ZI-PRA
members who
felt the location at Karigamombe was
inappropriate.
Nkomo-Ibrahim said the family had no say in the erection of
the statue in
Harare; this had been left to the Joshua Nkomo Foundation, the
custodians of
the legacy of Father Zimbabwe. - Own Correspondent
http://www.financialgazette.co.zw
Friday, 15 July 2011
16:29
Staff Reporter
THE embattled Commercial Farmers Union
(CFU) has submitted proposals to
government aimed at restoring viability in
the country's struggling
agricultural sector. The move signals efforts by
the CFU, which represents
dispossessed white commercial farmers, to reach
out to government, whose
agrarian reforms triggered an economic crisis that
plunged the country from
being a regional bread basket into a basket
case.
In its submissions to the two Vice-Presidents John Nkomo and Joice
Mujuru
through their respective State Ministers as well as to several
government
ministers, the CFU said revival of the country's agricultural
sector should
focus on restructuring the current set-up to ensure that new
farmers are
empowered, while outstanding disputes are settled by
compensating the
disposed former white commercial farmers.
The proposal
was also sent to the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and
Irrigation
Devel-opment, Joseph Made through his permanent secretary, Ngoni
Masoka.
CFU vice-president, Charles Taffs, said the union was looking
forward to a
positive response from the State players.
"We sent the
proposal to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee
on Thursday
(and) also to the two Vice-President's offices through the
Minister of State
in the office of Vice-President Joice Mujuru, Sylvester
Nguni and to Flora
Buka, the Minister of State in the office of
Vice-President John Nkomo," he
said.
"The pragmatic thing is for government to recl-aim the value of land;
there
is need to unlock its importance towards the country's economy," Taffs
added.
CFU comprises of former white commercial farmers whose land was
expropriated
by government under the land reform programme over a decade ago
for the
resettlement of black farmers government says were disposed by the
settler
colonial regime.
The few white farmers remaining have continued
to face persecution and
forced eviction despite government's reassurance
that land acquisition has
been completed.
Farm disruptions and evictions
continue and most farmers have lost household
goods, machinery and years of
hard work on the farms without being
compensated.
According to the
proposal, the solution to reviving agriculture would
include a new land
tenure system that would allow land to be tradable on the
open
market.
New farmers would purchase land rights by paying government over time
for
the land allocated to them under the land reforms and previous farmers
would
rece-ive compensation throu-gh a payment plan.
"This will enable
all farmers to fully invest and produce with confidence.
One of the key
principles behind financing agriculture in this way is to
avoid burdening
the nation's tax payers for the benefit of those selectively
empowered by
access to a finite national resource, " the agricultural
proposal
explained.
A key feature of the proposal is the establishment of the
Agricultural
Recovery Bank for the provision of short, medium and
long-term finance.
Each of these loan types would be underwritten by the
inherent value of the
agricultural businesses and the land on which a farmer
operates.
The recognition of the core value of business infrastructure and
land as the
basis on which secure lending can be facilitated would the first
step, the
CFU suggested.
Management, monitoring and evaluation of the
bank's performance would
require independent and accountable governance to
protect the bank's
investors and ensure that the bank remained competitive
to attract
substantial private sector international investment.
As part
of the proposal, a land commission would have to be app-ointed by
government
to monitor and implement policy on the land issue as well as the
appointment
of an agricultural asset audit to allow for a complete
understanding of the
ownership, occupation and value of all land in the
country.
"This
proposal does not seek to dictate the way forward for the
agricultural
sector, rather, it should be seen as a contribution that
attempts to take
a candid look at how a new dispensation might become
fully empowered, and at
the same time, engage the considerable value that
can be leveraged through
an integrated approach to the problem of
compensation," Taffs said.
http://www.ft.com/
By Andrew England in
Harare
Published: July 18 2011 16:26 | Last updated: July 18 2011
16:26
The role of the military has risen to the top of the political
agenda as
Zimbabwe’s fractious coalition debates the prospect of fresh
elections in
2012 or, if President Robert Mugabe has his way, before
then.
The question haunting members of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC),
the opposition party that joined Mr Mugabe’s Zanu-PF in a coalition
government after violently disputed elections in 2008, is how the security
establishment will react if the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime
minister, wins and becomes commander-in-chief.
EDITOR’S
CHOICE
Opinion: It is time for Britain to talk to Mugabe -
May-29
Zimbabwe’s tough line on nationalisation - Apr-15
Mugabe warns
against interfering in Zimbabwe - Apr-03
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe warns of
nationalisation - Dec-18
Zimbabwe sends mixed messages on mining -
Dec-09
Zimbabwe central bank to slash staff by 75% - Dec-07
Serving
and former commanders have been making menacing comments. Brig Gen
Douglas
Nyikayaramba, a commander in the national army, recently accused Mr
Tsvangirai of being a “national security threat” and stooge of western
powers. He added in comments to the Herald, the state newspaper, that: “We
will die for him [Mugabe] to make sure he remains in power.”
Although
many observers suggest such bellicose statements are posturing and
that even
Zanu-PF has distanced itself from his statement, the brigadier’s
views are
not unique among the security establishment, which has benefited
most from
the continuation of Mr Mugabe’s 31-years in power.
Asher Walter
Tapfumaneyi, a retired brigadier general who is principal
director in the
Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, told the
Financial Times that an
MDC victory could “mean from the extreme either the
military could stage a
coup or Zimbabwe could go to war”.
“I’m talking to you exactly how a lot
of us feel,” he said. There was zero
trust between the military and the MDC,
he explained, arguing that he and
others in the officer class believed the
party was bent on reversing “the
gains of the liberation
struggle”.
“The MDC mistrusts the military and we, to the last man,
particularly the
[liberation] war generation, we mistrust the MDC
completely,” he said. “The
leading establishment in the military are from
the liberation struggle … we
have grown up [with] and were groomed by
Zanu-PF, it’s what we are. The MDC
represents a threat to everything we
represent.”
Fighting talk of this kind has highlighted the need for the
MDC to push
through security sector reform before envisaging fresh
elections. But the
party remains in a weak position to get its
way.
During 2008 polls, military units were allegedly involved in the
violence.
The bloodshed caused Mr Tsvangirai to opt out of a presidential
run-off and
ultimately join the government in which Zanu-PF retains control
of the
security apparatus.
The country has enjoyed relative stability
since then, with the economy
tentatively recovering after a disastrous era
of hyper-inflation. But there
have been reports of fresh military deployment
in rural areas, which Zanu-PF
opponents describe as a pre-election strategy
of intimidation. Zanu-PF
officials dismiss the allegations, while insisting
that security reform will
not be on the agenda.
Against this
backdrop, political tensions have been on the rise.
Analysts say that
even if the MDC wins most votes at the ballot box, it has
few levers of
power to ensure results would be respected as long as the
security agencies
are aligned to Mr Mugabe.
“In the last 10 years in particular the
foundation of the Zimbabwe state has
been patronage and violence, or the
threat of it, and the main beneficiary
is the military hierarchy,” said Ibbo
Mandaza, a former stalwart of Zanu-PF
who now heads the Sapes Trust
think-tank. “It started to change in the last
few years, let’s say 2002, and
it’s more blatant since the flawed election
of 2008.”
Tendai Biti,
the finance minister and prominent MDC member, takes it a step
further,
claiming the military has anointed itself in the role of kingmaker.
“They
want to determine the president that they want and the president that
they
will salute,” he said, qualifying this by adding that it was only a
small
elite section of the military involved.
The MDC appears to have put its
faith in the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), the regional
bloc led by South Africa that brokered the
coalition deal and is monitoring
the political process.
Once seen as a weak body that lent support to Mr
Mugabe’s rule, it has
toughened its language this year. Coups are out of
fashion in sub-Saharan
Africa and have led to other countries, including
Madagascar, in the SADC
block being ostracised. This has raised MDC hopes
that the bloc would also
strongly resist a stolen election or military
intervention in Zimbabwe.
“The resolution of Zimbabwe’s crisis is no
longer a foreign policy problem
for South Africa, but it’s a domestic policy
problem,” said Jameson Timba,
another MDC minister. “There are … Zimbabweans
in South Africa putting
pressure on jobs and services, therefore there’s a
commitment to resolve the
crisis because it’s in their interests.”
Vigil supporter
Josephine Chari of Southend has been detained by the UK Border Agency and told
she has been booked on Kenyan Airways KQ101 to Nairobi leaving Heathrow at 20.00
on Thursday 21st July.
Her case is being
addressed by the Zimbabwe Association and others. For our part, the Vigil
believes that Zimbabwean failed asylum seekers should not be removed until the
situation in Zimbabwe is safe for opponents of Mugabe and when they can make a
living. As it is, there are constant reports of violence and human rights abuses
from Zimbabwe.
Josephine has been a
regular Vigil supporter. She is
being deported when there is no guarantee of her safety, particularly as she is
a person who has been visible as a Vigil activist.
For the Vigil’s
approach to this, here is part of our basic submission to the Home Office /
UKBA:
In July 2010 an
activist representing the Vigil and our partner organisation Restoration of
Human Rights in Zimbabwe returned home on a visit. He was identified as a Vigil
supporter and arrested, beaten up and tortured. He would still be there if it
hadn’t been for our efforts to get him legal help and escape from Zimbabwe. (See
Vigil diaries of 31/07/2010: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/ZimVigil-Diary-Entries/zimbabwe-vigil-diary-31st-july-2010.html,
07/08/2010: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/ZimVigil-Diary-Entries/zimbabwe-vigil-diary-7th-august-2010.html).
The Vigil does not know how any other individual would be treated if returned to
Zimbabwe. But this incident shows that activism in the UK and attendance at the
Vigil increases the risk of being known by the forces within Zimbabwe that still
perpetrate violence against Mugabe opponents. We are a high-profile protest that
has been under constant surveillance by intelligence operatives of the regime.
Our supporters are those who care enough about the human rights abuses in their
country to attend our protests. Many of them make a considerable effort in terms
of cost and long hours travelling to come because they see the right of freedom
to protest, which is denied to those back home, as important in the campaign
against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Our supporters are
easy to identify because we are an on-the-street protest constantly photographed
by the passing public (including unidentified people who do not join the protest
and who our supporters confirm as Zimbabwean). Photos taken by ourselves appear
on many photo and video websites which can be accessed by the Zimbabwe Central
Intelligence Organisation. This was demonstrated when one of our reports
accompanied by a photo of one of our supporters appeared in the newspaper the
Zimbabwean which is circulated in Zimbabwe as well as South Africa and the UK.
Within days his family home in Zimbabwe was raided by the police who spoke
angrily about Zimbabweans in the UK – check: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/ZimVigil-Diary-Entries/zimbabwe-vigil-diary-22nd-august-2009.html.
More recently, the funeral of the mother of a member of the Vigil management
team was disrupted by Mugabe’s Zanu PF members because of his involvement with
the Vigil – check: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/the-vigil-diary/312-voice-of-british-caribbeans-ashamed-of-mugabe-zimbabwe-vigil-diary-4th-june-2011.
The UK government
indicated last year that it was ending its moratorium on sending home failed
Zimbabwean asylum seekers despite continuing evidence of political violence and
the targeting of anti-Mugabe activists. The Vigil would be interested in hearing
of anyone being sent back. As mentioned in our last diary another supporter has
been given a date by which to leave.
You may want to phone
Kenyan airways (0871 258 2179) to persuade them to refuse to take
Josephine on the flight.
For further
information: co-ordinator@zimvigil.co.uk, 07970
996 003.
Zimbabwe Vigil
Co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside
the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The
Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until
internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
By Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 18/07/11
One could argue that, in the
forthcoming elections, the Diaspora vote could
be potentially MDC’s most
effective means of sweeping to power. However,
reports that the Movement for
Democratic Change led by Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai appears helpless
in safeguarding that vote in this month’s
Electoral Amendment Bill could
have far-reaching implications.
If Mugabe can just change any law
unilaterally, regardless of the will of
the people as expressed through
their representatives in parliament, so why
is MDC in Parliament?
Presidential temporary emergency powers and the
prerogative of mercy which
have been abused at election time can be
abolished or amended so as to be
vetoed by Parliament among many checks and
balances which are long overdue
on the Zimbabwe’s executive presidency.
It would be very reckless and
suicidal for MDC-T to lend Zanu-pf a hand in
disenfranchising millions of
Zimbabweans who were forced to leave the
country due to circumstances beyond
their control and are living under very
difficult conditions abroad hoping
for one opportunity to vote the regime
out of power
peacefully.
Ensuring that the Diaspora vote is restored in the Electoral
Amendment Bill
is the sole responsibility of the MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai and the MDC
led by Welshman Ncube since Zanu-pf is opposed to it.
To safeguard the
Diaspora vote is not an act of charity. It is a national
duty. The
experience of the GNU has been so agonising and regrettable that
no sane
person wants it for any day longer.
MDC-T and of course the
other MDC and Zanu-pf are better advised not to
underestimate the power of
the Diaspora to campaign vigorously against any
injustices perpetrated by
the coalition government in Harare. Feigning
poverty in order to deny
millions of displaced Zimbabweans of their right to
vote in the most
decisive and historic poll would be grossly mischievous and
short-sighted.
Given the traditional Zanu-pf ritual of politically
motivated violence,
abductions, torture, murder and destruction of property,
any hope of free
and fair elections in Zimbabwe minus the Diaspora vote is
irresponsible.
The MDC-T will have no-one to blame but itself if the
Diaspora is
disenfranchised through the Electoral Amendment Bill now before
Parliament.
Similarly, MDC-T should not underestimate the ability of the
millions of
people in the Diaspora to fight for their democratic right to
vote and even
if it means falling out with former allies.
One would
have thought that the MDC-T has learnt enough lessons from its
experience in
the coalition with Zanu-pf’s perennial cry of anti-sanctions.
Today it’s
Zanu-pf moaning about targeted sanctions and asset freezes.
Inevitably,
there will be new candidates if the MDC succeeds in
disenfranchising
millions of Zimbabweans forced to live as second-class
citizens abroad,
thanks to Mugabe’s dictatorship.
Enough is enough, especially after the
MDC agreed to the Electoral Amendment
Bill in its flawed condition in
Cabinet and also voted for the Chinese loan
deal for a spy centre which has
the potential of causing human rights
violations in Zimbabwe. What more harm
is worse than disenfranchising your
own people? Don’t say we did not warn
you.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com