http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
06 June 2011
Sustainable development is the theme of the
conference Robert Mugabe is
attending in Brazil this week, yet the ailing
ZANU PF leader reportedly took
a delegation of 92 cronies, costing the cash
strapped Zimbabwean economy
more than $7 million.
Ironically, Mugabe
himself convened a special meeting last week to discuss
the economy, at
which Finance Minister Tendai Biti is said to have sparked a
heated debate
over the cost of the Rio trip. But according to the Daily News
newspaper,
Mugabe left the meeting early to attend a police passing-out
parade.
In his 2012 Budget Review the Finance Minister had warned
about the
extravagant travel costs of senior officials, saying $45.5 million
had been
blown on foreign trips last year. This averages out to about $4
million per
month being spent on travel by government officials.
The
size of Mugabe’s delegations when he travels abroad has long been a
subject
of ridicule and concern at the same time, with jokes being made
about
extravagant shopping trips while ordinary Zimbabweans struggle to feed
their
families.
Economic analyst John Robertson explained that Minister Biti
has no power to
change the situation, although he has frequently objected to
the amount
spent on these trips. According to Robertson Biti has been unable
to get any
legislation or policy changes made to stem Mugabe’s huge
expenses.
“We see this as an effect of the President wanting to reward
people who have
served him in some way. It’s all part of the patronage
system that the
President has depended on for many, many years,” Robertson
told SW Radio
Africa on Wednesday.
The Daily News said the delegation
to Brazil, which was spotted at Harare
airport Sunday, included Mugabe’s
wife Grace and a full medical staff that
he now travels with. Also in tow
was the Environment Minister Francis Nhema
and Foreign Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi.
Robertson said it was a “disgrace” that these individuals
have access to
such funds when there are welfare organisations shutting
down, people living
on charity because government has taken their pensions
and children who
cannot afford to go to school due to a lack of
facilities.
Regarding the conference, Robertson said sustainable
development involves
issues such as the practical use of scarce resources or
the cutting down of
indigenous hardwood timbers in Zimbabwe. Conservancies
have also been
plundered by war vets and military chefs who invaded them
illegally.
“These issues are not being addressed by the individuals
concerned. In fact
they might be the ones who are calling for policy choices
that do anything
but promote sustainable development,” the economist
explained.
Beside the financial cost of the trip, Tuesday’s cabinet
meeting was
cancelled because Mugabe insists that only he can chair this
weekly meeting
of coalition government ministers. This has also happened on
many occasions
when the ailing dictator leaves the country seeking medical
treatment.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
20 June 2012
Negotiators from the three parties in the GPA
have been meeting in Nyanga
since Sunday to resolve outstanding issues in
the drafting of a new
constitution, but a ‘total media blackout’ appears to
have been imposed on
their negotiations.
The latest round of talks
are expected to last until Wednesday and analysts
consider them ‘pivotal’,
in that they will determine whether or not the
country will go to elections
with a new charter.
SW Radio Africa understands that no statements will
be given to the media
until the talks are finalised. The ban is said to be
designed to increase
the chances of success of the talks, by ‘discouraging’
public debate about
the options on the table, taking place at the secluded
Ruparara lodge.
Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Eric
Matinenga told SW
Radio Africa on Friday last week that they had set aside
at least three days
to try to reach agreement on all outstanding
issues.
The committee members in Nyanga for the indaba are Tendai Biti
and Elton
Mangoma of the MDC-T, ZANU PF’s Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas
Goche and
MDC-N’s Moses Mzila-Ndlovu and Priscilla
Misihairambwi-Mushonga.
Matinenga is attending as Minister in charge of
the drafting process and so
are the three COPAC co-chairpersons from ZANU PF
and the MDC, namely Paul
Mangwana, Douglas Mwonzora and Edward
Mkhosi.
As they headed into the talks on Sunday, the three parties were
still miles
apart on core issues of the negotiations. In the last two months
there has
been a widening of positions between ZANU PF and the MDC
formations on the
three core areas of the negotiations; the devolution of
power, the structure
of the executive and dual citizenship.
Edwin
Mushoriwa, the Deputy President of the MDC led by Welshman Ncube, said
they
not heard anything from their negotiators since they set off for Nyanga
on
Sunday.
“It’s possible they could have agreed as negotiators not to grant
the media
any statements regarding what happens behind the closed doors of
direct
talks until an agreement, if possible, is reached,” Mushoriwa
said.
Other analysts surmised that the media ban could have been demanded
by the
South African facilitation team that met the negotiators in Harare
last
week.
The three parties in the inclusive government have been
deadlocked on the
outstanding issues in the constitution-making process,
presenting a huge
setback in preparations for fresh elections expected next
year.
Political commentator Munjonzi Mutandiri cited lack of proper
guiding
principles as the reason behind the time it has taken to complete
the
process.
“In South Africa when they came up with their
constitution after apartheid
they drew up 34 guiding principles that made it
impossible for politicians
or parties to manipulate the process,” Mutandiri
said.
He added: “What we have now with COPAC is that it has been turned
into a
negotiating platform, they have to agree on almost everything,
completely
subverting what the people said during the outreach. If they had
stuck to
what people said, I’m sure this process would have been completed
two years
ago.”
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
20/06/2012 00:00:00
by Patience
Nyangove
NINE people perished and 18 others were hospitalised
after a Gweru-bound
ZUPCO bus rammed into a broken-down heavy goods truck in
Kwekwe early on
Wednesday, police confirmed.
The accident is the
third serious road disaster in as many days after two
other commuter bus
crashes in Wedza and Mbembesi claimed a combined 19
lives.
Police
Superintendent Andrew Phiri said initial accounts by survivors in the
Kwekwe
crash suggested there was fog, which may have prevented the bus
driver from
noticing the broken down truck.
“The ZUPCO bus crashed into the
stationary lorry at around 6AM and
overturned. Seven people died on the spot
and two others died on their way
to hospital,” he said by telephone from
Harare.
The broken-down truck was carrying steel rods. Some of the
survivors from
the bus which had 27 passengers told how most of the dead
were stabbed by
the rods which ripped through the bus.
National
traffic police deputy spokesperson Assistant Inspector Luckmore
Chakanza
said the injured were being treated at Gweru and Kwekwe General
Hospitals.
The driver of the bus is among the injured, Chakanza
said.
Chakanza said the bus driver told the police that he did not see
the haulage
truck registered to Wel Mining Transport in time because of poor
visibility.
"The bus rammed into the rear right side of the haulage truck
with the front
left side. On impact, the steel rods stabbed some passengers
and seven
people died on the spot," Chakanza said.
http://www.radiovop.com/
Bulawayo,June
20,2012—Thirteen people were killed in fatal Kombi crash along
the Bulawayo
–Fort Rixon road in Matebeleland South early Tuesday morning.
Four others
were also injured in the accident after the overloaded kombi
veered off the
road before crashing into Nonko River.
“Thirteen people were killed on
the spot and four more were injured and have
since been referred to United
Bulawayo Hospital (UBH) in Bulawayo. "The
accident occurred yesterday in
Fort Rixon although I am yet to receive a
report with finer details of the
accident,” Matebeleland South police
spokesperson Tafanana Dzirutwe
said.
The Fort Rixon accident came just a month after 13 other people
were killed
in another fatal accident which occurred along the
Harare-Bindura highway
after a min-bus driver lost control and veered off
the road.
Most of the Zimbabwe roads are in a state of disrepair with
many littered
with dangerous potholes as result of years of neglect and
increased volume
of traffic beyond designed carrying
capacity.
Hundreds of Zimbabweans including some senior government
leaders have
perished in road accidents that experts have largely blamed on
the poor
state of roads. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s wife Susan
Tsvangirai
also perished in car accident along Harare- Masvingo highway in
March 2009.
It is believed that the number of the people who have died in
traffic
accidents is much higher than that of the people who have died of
HIV-Aids
or any other disease.
Statistics from the Zimbabwe Traffic
Police show that road accident
fatalities have increases from 35 deaths per
thousand accidents to 45 deaths
per thousand accidents.
According to
the ministry of transport, 30 percent of the country’s roads
require
rehabilitation, while the remainder needs periodic maintenance.
Zimbabwe
introduced tollgates in August 2009 as a way of mobilising
resources for the
rehabilitation and maintenance of the country’s road
network.
Small
vehicle road users pay US$1 to cross the tollgates, while buses and
lorries
pay $5. Motorbike and cyclists do not pay anything.
According to official
government estimates, the tollgates are raising $350
000 per week.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex
Bell
20 June 2012
Western diplomats in Zimbabwe are set for a tour of
the controversial
Chiadzwa diamond fields, in what critics have slammed as
an attempt by ZANU
PF to push for the removal of targeted sanctions against
party linked
diamond firms.
Announcing the visit last week,
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Mines, Obert Mpofu,
said he hoped the visit by
Western diplomats would put to rest claims of
human-rights abuses by
security forces in the diamond-mining fields.
“The EU ambassadors and
Western country ambassadors are going to Marange
next week. We said come. In
fact, they asked for that permission a long time
ago ……we are open to
scrutiny,” Mpofu said.
The visit comes as there are ongoing reports of
abuses led by the military,
police and private security guards at the
diamonds fields. Most recently, an
investigation by the UK’s Sunday Times
newspaper reported how beatings,
assaults, dog attacks and other abuses were
still ongoing.
The tour is now seen as an attempt by Mpofu to try and
move past the
violence reports, with ZANU PF still pushing for Western
targeted sanctions
to be removed. These measures are still in place against
key members of the
Robert Mugabe regime and many companies, including the
Zimbabwe Mining and
Development Corporation (ZMDC) which has a large stake
in Chiadzwa.
Political analyst Clifford Mashiri told SW Radio Africa on
Wednesday that
ZANU PF is “trying to pretend that the abuses can be washed
away,” and that
the party “wants everyone to believe that all is
fine.”
“I don’t think this strategy will work,” Mashiri said, while
urging civil
society “to keep an eye open and keep reporting the abuses at
Chiadzwa.”
Mashiri meanwhile agreed that the diplomats’ visit could have
a potentially
brutal consequence for villagers in the Marange area, if a
‘clean up’
operation is put into place ahead of the tour.
The tour is
expected to take place next week.
http://www.radiovop.com
By Professor Matodzi
HARARE, June 20, 2012-Zimbabwe’s embattled and
debt-ridden state-run
airline, Air Zimbabwe has been booted out of the
International Air Transport
Association (IATA), in a fresh setback for the
ailing
airline.
Information obtained exclusively by Radio VOP this week show
that the world
aviation body booted Air Zimbabwe out of its registry last
week after the
airline failed to renew its registration with IATA’s
Operational Safety
Audit (IOSA).
“Please be advised that tomorrow, June
14, 2012, Air Zimbabwe will be
removed from the IOSA registry as the
operator failed to renew its
registration before the expiry date,” reads
part of a letter written to
Edmund Makona, Air Zimbabwe’s Lead Auditor,
Quality and IOSA Project
Coordinator by Catalin Cotrut, IATA’s director for
Global
Audit Programs, which was seen by Radio VOP.
IOSA is the benchmark
for global safety management in airlines and all IATA
members are registered
and must remain registered in order to maintain IATA
membership.
However,
Air Zimbabwe failed to renew its registration with IATA because of
the
operational problems currently affecting the airline, which culminated
in
the grounding and suspension of all of its aircraft in January. The
registration process, which was due on June
23, is carried out after
every two years.
Insiders at Air Zimbabwe said IATA personnel failed to
conduct the
registration exercise on the airline because there was no
personnel and
operational aircraft to audit at Air Zimbabwe including routes
to assess its
safety records. “Air Zimbabwe is officially out of IATA. The
airline was
dead when IATA people visited us because there was no one to
audit,” said
the insiders.
The condemnation of Air Zimbabwe by IATA,
which represents, leads and serves
the airline industry and whose members
comprise all major passenger and
cargo airlines is the latest setback for
the airline, which suspended
regional and international flights in January
owing to debts and a crippling
job action by employees.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
Written by Tendai Kamhungira, Court Writer
Wednesday, 20
June 2012 12:06
HARARE - A Harare magistrate has freed MDC99
president Job Sikhala after a
state witness failed to appear in court to
testify against the politician
who was facing rape and theft
charges.
Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya freed Sikhala after
prosecutor
Kudzai Chigwedere applied for the postponement of the case, in
order to give
her time to secure the attendance of her witness who is in
South Africa.
Sikhala was accused of raping and stealing from the South
African woman whom
he was once accused of bringing into the country
illegally, before the court
acquitted him of the charges in April this
year.
The trial was supposed to start yesterday but Chigwedere told the
court she
was making arrangements to have her witness brought back into the
country
after she was deported to South Africa on June 2 this
year.
However, Sikhala could have none of it and demanded that he must be
tried or
freed pending the state’s arrangements to bring the
witness.
He told the court the witness had been in custody since December
last year
and finished serving her sentence in February this year, but the
police had
kept her until this month in order for her to testify against
him, only to
deport her before the commencement of the trial.
“The
investigating officer knew of this trial date but he assisted the
complainant to leave the country.
The state must understand that this is
not a remand court but a trial court
and I demand trial today, failure of
which the court should refuse further
remand,” Sikhala said.
The
39-year-old politician had been accused of raping and stealing from the
South African woman when he had visited that country to source for donations
and financial assistance for his party.
The State alleged Sikhala had
illegally brought the woman into the country
where upon arrival, they stayed
at his house in Chitungwiza.
Sikhala asked to go out with the woman for a
drink in July last year, the
court was told.
While in the bar, the
court heard how Sikhala told the woman that he had
never been intimate with
a white woman, before he started fondling her
breasts.
After a week,
Sikhala allegedly took the woman to a lodge on the pretext he
wanted to see
a certain person.
The outspoken politician allegedly had sexual
intercourse with the woman for
the first time before repeating the act at
the same lodge. He gave the woman
$5, it was alleged.
He allegedly
had sexual intercourse with the woman on several occasions
especially on
Sundays when his wife and children would have left home for
church
services.
It is alleged the woman fell pregnant after a couple of months
but suffered
a miscarriage.
She managed to run away in December last
year and sought refuge at a friend’s
place, before she got arrested by
immigration officials during the same
month.
She reported the rape
and theft while serving a jail term for being in the
country without a
permit.
Sikhala is also accused of stealing the woman’s clothes valued at
R22 000.
http://www.voanews.com
19 June
2012
Jonga Kandemiiri | Washington
The Lovemore
Matombo-led faction of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions,
which on
Monday lost an appeal against a High Court ruling barring its
leaders from
representing the organization, says it will continue to use the
name ZCTU,
regardless.
The Supreme Court ruling barred the faction from representing
workers under
the unions’ umbrella body.
The Matombo faction sought
to nullify the outcome of a congress held in
August last year by another
group of the ZCTU that is led by George Nkiwane.
The case is still pending
in the courts.
Monday’s decision was based on an application by the
Nkiwane faction seeking
to stop the holding of another ZCTU congress by the
Matombo faction in
December last year.
The high court ruled in
Nkiwane’s favor, but the Matombo faction appealed to
the supreme court, a
case it lost Monday.
Spokesman Raymond Majongwe of the Matombo faction
told VOA that the group
will not be defying the court ruling by continuing
to call themselves ZCTU,
adding that is what their membership mandated them
to do.
But secretary general Japhet Moyo of the Nkiwane faction, who
welcomed the
ruling, warned his erstwhile colleagues that the law will catch
up with them
if they ignore the courts.
Law expert and National
Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku
said the Matombo faction
should have waited for the outcome of its own court
application before
claiming legitimacy.
Two factions of the ZCTU emerged after Matombo and
his followers declined to
recognize Nkiwane's election as the unions'
umbrella body. They then formed
a splinter group.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
20 June
2012
Refugees in South Africa have marked World Refugee Day by protesting
the
ongoing closures of asylum offices across the country, accusing the
government there of ‘disregarding’ its international human rights
commitments.
The government started closing the refugee reception
centres in metropolitan
areas last year, with plans to reopen the offices at
border posts. The
Department of Home Affairs has insisted that this will not
impact the
country’s commitments to protecting asylum seekers, but will
instead help
deal with South Africa’s bloated asylum system.
But
human rights groups have warned that the closure of the offices is
making it
even harder for asylum seekers to apply for the protection that
South Africa
is committed to provide.
The government’s plan started with the closure
of the Crown Mines office in
Johannesburg in May 2011. This was closely
followed by the closure of the
Port Elizabeth refugee office in November
2011. Both these closures were
challenged in the courts and the courts have
held that the decision to close
these refugee offices was unlawful and have
asked Home Affairs to revisit
this decision. In the Port Elizabeth legal
challenge the Eastern Cape High
court even ordered the refugee office to
re-open to existing refugees and
asylum seekers as well as newcomers. To
date this has not taken place.
According to Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, head
of the Refugee and Migrant Rights
Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, the
closures and the decision to move
asylum processing to the border areas “has
caused considerable anxiety
within the refugee community.”
“South
Africa is disregarding its international obligations to protect
refugees and
these moves are counter-productive,” Ramjathan-Keogh said.
Lawyers for
Human Rights said the new policy changes appear to be a
“mechanism to avoid
dealing with the real problems of a poor refugee status
determination
process and an inability to process claims within a reasonable
time period
coupled with the rampant corruption within the asylum system.”
These
sentiments have been echoed by the Consortium for Refugees and
Migrants in
South Africa (CoRMSA), which organised this week’s public
protest calling
for the closures to stop. Sicel’mpilo Shange-Buthane, CoRMSA’s
executive
director, told SW Radio Africa that South African authorities
appear to be
“making it as hard as possible for people to claim asylum.”
“We are very
concerned about the actions of the authorities and what knock
on effects
these have for asylum seekers. It’s about denying the rights of
people to
asylum which is dictated by the Asylum Act… closing these offices
already
prejudices people who are in the country but have not yet applied
for
asylum,” Shange-Buthane said.
She also said that there are monthly
reports of xenophobic attacks on
foreigners in South Africa, saying the
decision by the department to close
the officer was sending a “dangerous
message.”
“It sends a message that ‘these people are not needed’ and it
is a dangerous
message that promotes dangerous attitude and consequences,”
Shange-Buthane
warned.
According to figures released in time for
World Refugee Day on Thursday,
South Africa remains “the largest recipient
of individual asylum
applications (107,000), a status it has held for the
past four years”. This
includes an estimated three million or more
Zimbabweans, who continue to
face a serious threat if they are returned
home.
But this threat has not prevented South Africa from lifting its
moratorium
on deportations and it’s understood that at least 14,000
Zimbabweans have
been deported since last year.
http://www.voanews.com
19 June
2012
Violet
Gonda | London
The British Appeals Court on Monday sent back to a
lower court a test case
regarding Zimbabwean asylum seekers after it emerged
the country’s Home
Office had deliberately failed to disclose significant
evidence in the
matter during deliberations.
Legal experts say the
case, first heard in 2010, involves the Home Office’s
attempts to force
failed asylum-seekers to return home and ‘lie’ about their
political
affiliation to avoid persecution, so the UK can reduce immigration
numbers.
But four Zimbabwean respondents claim they will face a real
risk of
persecution if deported.
Brighton Mutebuka, a principal
lawyer at Mutebuka & Co Immigration Lawyers,
based in Leeds, told VOA
the Home Office conceded that their action was
unlawful.
“The Upper
Tribunal judges will look at all the evidence afresh including
evidence that
hadn’t been disclosed and of course they will also look at the
current
political developments in Zimbabwe and then provide a thorough
country
guidance case which will then form future guidance in Zimbabwean
asylum and
human rights cases.
“But we remain unclear as to which direction the
court is likely to take as
the political situation in Zimbabwe is fluid
whereas the situation moving
into the national elections in March 2008 was
much more clear cut,” Mutebuka
said.
Chengetai Mupara, a human rights
and immigration lawyer practicing in the UK
said although the case focuses
on a handful of Zimbabweans whose asylum
claims were rejected, it will have
implications for asylum seekers from
other foreigners in the UK, and could
set a disturbing precedent forces
people to return to their countries and
pretend that they support bad
governments.
He added: “The fact of the
matter is that there are some Zimbabweans who do
not have firm political
views in support of either Zanu PF or the MDC but
they still claim they will
face persecution in Zimbabwe because if they are
asked to demonstrate their
support and loyalty to Zanu PF – through
repeating Zanu PF slogans or songs
- they will not be able to do that.”
“The Home Office is saying people
like them could go back to Zimbabwe and
when asked to demonstrate such
loyalty they could lie about their true
political views and state that they
support Zanu PF in order to evade
persecution.”
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
The Grain Marketing Board has been distributing
food aid under its grain
loan scheme at Zanu (PF) offices in Chipinge, it
has been established.
20.06.1209:31am
by Thomas
Madhuku
Villagers at Checheche Growth point told The Zimbabwean
that the grain
utility, under unclear circumstances, had been giving out
grain from a
building owned by the party’s shadow Chipinge South MP, Enock
Porusingazi.
The building is not accessible to MDC supporters and
villagers said they
were disgruntled by Zanu (PF)’s manipulation of food aid
ahead of general
elections.
A Zanu (PF) member, who refused to be
named, said party supporters attended
meetings before food was
distributed.
“At our meetings, it is agreed if you are not from Zanu
(PF), you don’t get
any food from the GMB,” he said.
Villagers said
MDC supporters were being refused food aid.
“We are not even informed
that there is food available for distribution, but
then we see other people
carrying bags of maize,’’ said a villager.
Huchenani area village head,
Mutape Mangiza Huchenani, said the situation
was
disturbing.
“Obviously, we are against the interference of politicians in
the GMB food
aid. This should be left to traditional and community leaders,”
he said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/
By Godfrey Marawanyika and Brian
Latham - Jun 20, 2012 8:07 PM GMT+1000
Hwange Colliery Co. Ltd.
(HWANGE), a Zimbabwean coal miner, will fire 200
administration and human
resources workers because a new computer program
will do their work in a
“paperless” environment, said Fred Moyo, the company’s
managing
director
The workers will lose their jobs immediately, Moyo said in a
telephone
interview from Harare today before a company board meeting in the
capital.
“No one employed in operations has been affected,” he
said.
Hwange, in western Zimbabwe, is Zimbabwe’s biggest colliery and the
main
supplier of fuel to Zimbabwe’s state-owned power utility Zesa Holdings
(Pvt)
Ltd. The mine has been held back by ageing equipment and needs about
$200
million to recapitalize, Moyo said May 16.
The company also
exports coal to neighboring countries and India, and is
negotiating to sell
to China.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Wednesday, 20 June
2012
Spencer Nyararai, a State witness in the murder trial of 29 MDC
members has
been accused of rehearsing and fabricating evidence to falsely
implicate the
accused. This was said by the lead defence counsel, Beatrice
Mtetwa during
the cross examination of Nyararai at the High Court
today.
This statement was made after Nyararai gave several conflicting
evidence and
claimed that he saw some of the accused people at the scene of
crime.
Nyararai had told Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that he had identified
Lazarus
Maengahama, Yvonne Musarurwa and Rebecca Mafukeni at the scene of
crime last
year wearing MDC shirts but gave conflicting statements on their
hairstyles
when they were arrested and appeared in court for initial
remand.
He claimed Musarurwa and Mafukeni had short hair but on the
initial remand
at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts less than a week later they
had long hair.
Most of the evidence he gave in court today was divergent
with the
statements that he gave to the police last year and other State
witnesses
who have taken the stand before him.
In court he said the
accused were singing and chanting MDC songs and slogans
but this is omitted
in his police statement.
“The evidence in court is materially different
from the evidence he first
gave to the police because he has rehearsed. The
police statements do not
include the chanting and singing in front of
Munyarari Bar because it did
not happen,” said Mtetwa.
Nyararai also
stunned the court that stones used to attack the police
officer, Inspector
Petros Mutedza where thrown to the front of the bar from
residential houses
at the back of the bar.
This resulted in the intervention of the trial
judge who said the court
would see how this is possible during the in loco
inspection to be done next
Tuesday. “He will show us how it is possible
during inspection in loco,”
said Justice Bhunu. The inspection, which was
supposed to take place on
Thursday, has been postponed in order to put the
necessary security
arrangements in place.
Nyararai also said some of
the evidence brought to court had been tampered
with after a police radio he
picked lying beside the deceased police officer
had been fiddled with while
it was in police custody.
The police officer said when he picked up the
police radio it was in two
pieces but when it was presented in court today,
it was in three pieces.
More shocking in Nyararai’s statement is that
Victor Magutarima, another
police officer who gave evidence last week said
he was the one who took the
broken radio into his custody after it was
handed over to him by a young boy
at the shopping centre.
The trial
will resume on Monday with the defence lawyers making application
for leave
to apply for bail at the Supreme Court. The application follows
the refusal
by Justice Bhunu to give the accused bail on Tuesday saying they
had not
shown any special circumstances to be granted bail.
The people’s struggle
for real change: Let’s finish it!!
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
ZanuPF will relinquish power if
the party loses in the next elections, its
Secretary for Administration,
Didymus Mutasa, has said.
20.06.1209:56am
by Lisa
Marume
“We fought to liberate this country but when the people
say we should go, we
will step down. I hope the people won’t say that
because we liberated
Zimbabwe,” Mutasa, who has in the past declared
presidential ambitions, told
The Zimbabwean.
His statement
contradicts the position security chiefs have maintained since
the formation
of the Movement for Democratic Change in 1999. Army generals
have repeatedly
vowed that they would not respect any leader without“war
credentials”.
Mutasa is optimistic that the controversial
indigenisation programme, seen
as a “share grab” along the lines of the
“land grab” of 2000, will guarantee
Zanu (PF) victory at the next
polls.
“As a matter of fact, we have greater support now since we are
empowering
the people through the indigenization programme,” he claimed.
Mutasa
defended the army for its involvement in politics and elections,
saying they
had a democratic right to do so. He said it was ‘‘naïve and
arrogant’’ for
anyone to insinuate that the military should not be involved
in elections
and politics.
‘‘Almost everyone in the Politburo (Zanu
(PF) decision making body) went to
war to liberate this country and that
includes Constantine Chiwenga and
Perence Shiri. What does it mean now to
say that they can’t be (actively
involved in elections)? ‘‘Should they now
cease to exercise their democratic
right to be in politics, a right which
they fought for?
“Does it make any sense to say they should now cease to
support Zanu (PF)
because they are now in the military?’’ said
Mutasa.
Mutasa acknowledged deep seated factionalism within his party,
but distanced
himself from any camp. “I belong to Zanu(PF)and for those that
have
factions, let them have them. I cannot stop them. As a matter of fact I
was
thinking about it this morning while I was on my way from Rusape that if
I
am asked this question my response would be that I belong to both camps
because they make the party,’’ he said.
There are numerous camps
within the party, one of them being Mugabe’s
staunch loyalists, who include
Mutasa. Diplomatic cables leaked last year
indicated that several
influential members of the party confided in secret
meetings that they
wanted Mugabe to go because he had overstayed.
http://www.herald.co.zw/
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
12:00
Freeman Razemba recently in Mutare
The timber industry has
petitioned Government to impose stiffer and
deterrent penalties on people
involved in arson and deforestation
countrywide. The Timber Producers’
Federation last week held a meeting in
Mutare where they agreed to petition
Environment and Natural Resources
Management Minister Francis Nhema over the
issue.
This comes in the wake of revelations that millions of United States
dollars
worth of timber has been lost through fires caused by illegal
settlers and
deforestation among others.
Allied Timbers chief executive
officer Dr Joseph Kanyekanye expressed
concern over the issues and said
there was need for Government to impose
stiffer penalties on those found
engaged in such activities.
“It’s a serious matter which we think we need to
articulate to the minister.
Let’s deal with the illegal settlers and other
issues.
“Politicians react to pressure and that is what we should do,” he
said.
Dr Kanyekanye said many people were coming in with mining permits since
it
is believed that gold and diamonds were found in timber forests.
He
said people were illegally settled at district level against Government
policy that forestry land should not be occupied.
“The Government does
not allow any settlements on forestry land, any offer
of land is given by
the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement only,” he said.
Dr Kanyekanye said
failure by the Government to stop the illegal
resettlement would result in
the timber industry collapsing.
He also said the Environmental Management
Agency was making a lot of money
through them but doing nothing on
deforestation.
Other timber producers said the industry in Manicaland creates
at least 60
percent of employment besides other sectors and if destroyed
there would be
unemployment.
They said they had carried out a lot of
awareness campaigns to the people
but the impact was very minimal.
In
January, Zimbabwe had lost revenue of up to US$200 million due to
activities
of illegal settlers in areas reserved for timber plantations.
Addressing
journalists recently in Harare, Dr Kanyekanye said more than 4
000 families
across the country had invaded 12 000 hectares of forestry
land.
“US$200
million has been lost because of these culprits, these people are
destroying
our economy,” he said.
“A lot of money is being lost because of these people
. . . we can say they
are committing murder because it’s killing our
country’s economy.”
Dr Kanyekanye said forestry plantations were vulnerable
because Government
had not done anything to evict the illegal
settlers.
He said they had tried to engage Government and the police to help
them
evict the people without success.
Dr Kanyekanye said some of the
illegal settlers started fires to give a
negative perception that timber
companies were not replanting clear areas.
By March this year, Allied Timbers
Zimbabwe lost US$19 million due to arson
fires caused by illegal settlers
and prospecting miners, thus disrupting
operations.
According to Dr
Kanyekanye 2 836 hectares has been occupied by 2 830 illegal
settlers,
disrupting operations of the timber exporting unit.
He said Chimanimani was a
serious problem and it was the largest area of
forestry land currently
at 50 028 hectares under Allied Timbers
Zimbabwe and this was
being reduced to nothing as trees are burnt yearly.
Dr Kanyekanye said the
major challenge was from the Mines and Mining
Development Ministry issuing
special grants to people to mine in the
forestry.
People are coming in
with letters and these include Chinese, Russians and
many others, he said.
http://www.cricketworld.com
20 June 2012
Zimbabwe 176-4
(Sibanda 58, Taylor 55) beat
South Africa 147 (Ingram 48, Mpofu 3-20) by 29
runs
Tri-Nations Twenty20 series, Harare
Zimbabwe beat South Africa by
29 runs to maintain a perfect start to the
Tri-Nations Twenty20 series they
are hosting in Harare.
They followed up an 11-run win over Bangladesh in
their opening game with a
clinical performance, scoring 176 for four before
bowling South Africa out
for 147.
Half-centuries from openers Vusi
Sibanda (58 in 50 balls) and Hamilton
Masakadza (55 in 39) set them on their
way with a 114-run stand for the
opening wicket.
Captain Brendan
Taylor then blasted 38 in 21 deliveries before Wayne Parnell
took two
wickets to keep South Africa in the game.
Richard Levi then thumped 40 in
28 balls and although Hashim Amla fell for
11, Colin Ingram's 48 in 39 balls
appeared to be putting South Africa on
course for victory.
Zimbabwe
hit back, with Christopher Mpofu grabbing three for 20 and
leg-spinner
Graeme Cremer returning three for 29 as the Proteas' innings
fell away
dramatically, losing the last five wickets for 33 runs.
Richard Muzhange
returned two for 28, Prosper Utseya removed Levi and Kyle
Jarvis caught and
bowled Lonwabo Tsotsobe to end the innings.
Zimbabwe are back in action
tomorrow (21st June) when they play Bangladesh
again.
© Cricket World
2012
http://www.mdc.co.zw
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
An MDC
youth member, Decent Rutsito (22) was yesterday assaulted by a gang
of Zanu
PF youths led by one Chiraundi in Mbare.
The Zanu PF hooligans ganged up
against Rutsito, who was going for a VID
test around 11am and took him to a
room at Njere flats in the suburb where
they heavily assaulted him with fan
belts for supporting MDC.
A former branch chairperson for Majubheki,
Rutsito is a well known MDC
activist in the area. He reported the matter to
Mbare Police Station before
he passed out. He was only assisted after the
intervention of fellow MDC
members who got a tip-off from Mbare
residents.
Rutsito has since been hospitalised.
The people’s
struggle for real change: Let’s finish it!!
Media Release from
the Zimbabwe Vigil – 20th June 2012
Zimbabwean protest
outside Zambian diplomatic offices
Zimbabwean exiles are
to stage a demonstration outside the Zambian High Commission in London at 3.30
pm on Thursday 21st June as part of the 21st Movement
Free Zimbabwe Global Protests that have been
taking place on the 21st of each month since the beginning of 2012
(see: https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/jun20_2012.html#Z6
– Zambian President to be targeted in Free Zim Protest).
The protesters will
deliver a statement from Den Moyo, the Zimbabwean diaspora leader in the USA
(see: Global Zimbabwe Protest against Zambian President Sata’s utterances - http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/news/zimbabwe/58905/global-zimbabwe-protest-against-zambian.html).
The protest follows a
similar demonstration by the Zimbabwe Vigil outside the Zambian High Commission
when President Sata was in the UK for the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations (see: .
http://www.zimvigil.co.uk/vigil-news/press-releases/409-zimbabweans-in-uk-protest-at-zambian-presidents-visit--6th-june-2012
- Zimbabweans in UK protest at Zambian President’s visit).
Protest details
Time and Date:
3.30
– 4.30 pm on Thursday 21st June
Venue:
Zambian High
Commission, 2 Palace Gate, London W8 5NG
Contact:
Rose
Benton 07970996003, 07932193467
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
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com
June
20, 2012, 11:30 am
By EUSEBIUS
MCKAISER
JOHANNESBURG — If only I could be a Malawian citizen for a day.
Then I could
brag that my country’s new leader, President Joyce Banda, is
doing the right
thing by warning Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir that he’ll
be arrested if he
sets foot in Malawi. In honoring the arrest warrant that
the International
Criminal Court has issued against Bashir for crimes
against humanity — and
showing basic respect for human rights and
international law — she stands
virtually alone among African
leaders.
You’d think she’d get credit for that. After all, governments
across the
continent have been keen to demonstrate to the international
community that
they have the capacity and the political will to guarantee
human rights
across the region. Yet the Zimbabwean politician Jonathan Moyo,
a close ally
of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (who no doubt fears his
day in
court), has accused Banda of bowing to pressure from international
donors.
The A.U., for its part, is simply protecting Bashir. This is the
continent-wide, 54-member-strong body that often moans — as it did during
the Libyan crisis last year — that the West should allow it to design and
implement “African solutions for African problems.” The slogan has a nice
ring to it and, indeed, ought to be taken seriously: patronizing Western
powers should not usurp Africans’ right to self-determination and
governance. But is the A.U. capable? Earlier this month, to avoid creating
diplomatic tensions among its members, the A.U. decided to move a crucial
summit from Malawi to Ethiopia, from one country where Bashir risked being
arrested to another where he was guaranteed not to be.
Joyce Banda,
President of Malawi.Ahmed Jallanzo/European Pressphoto
AgencyJoyce Banda,
President of Malawi.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.Mohamed
Nureldin
Abdallah/ReutersSudanese President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir.
This unwillingness to arrest al-Bashir is mindboggling,
especially when it
comes from the 33 African countries that are signatories
of the I.C.C. Chad,
Djibouti and Kenya, for example, have all failed to
arrest Bashir when he
was in their territory. My own country, South Africa,
remains callously
ambivalent on the issue, asserting a willingness to
respect the I.C.C.’s
arrest warrant but secretly hoping that the African
Union might yet manage
to get the warrant revoked. (It is not clear,
however, how the I.C.C.’s
chief prosecutor will be persuaded to back off.)
This diplomatic ambiguity
has led to absurdities like the South African
government inviting Bashir to
President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration but
secretly advising him to not attend.
This shows a shocking lack of
commitment to human rights all the more so
because one of the features that
was supposed to differentiate the A.U. from
its weak predecessor, the
Organization of African Union, was its commitment
to “the responsibility to
protect,” which requires A.U. members to protect
the human rights of people
who are being abused by their own governments.
The A.U.’s opposition to
Bashir’s arrest also undermines the organization’s
own case that it is
capable — and deserving — of taking charge of its own
political
destiny.
Eusebius McKaiser is a political analyst at Wits University in
Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri, 20 June 2012.
After three fatal crashes in a
fortnight caused by Mugabe’s huge
fuel-guzzling and polluting motorcade,
Zimbabwe’s 88-year old tyrant is
arguably literally killing faster than
climate change.
It could be argued that Mugabe has turned into an
“assassin” or a
“terminator” with no remorse whatsoever as he hypocritically
lectures on a
green sustainable development.
Contrary to pretences of
being a caring president, Mugabe’s profligacy and
disregard for the
environment is tragically quite glaring not to be
noticed - from an
expensive and highly polluting motorcade, a bloated
delegation, a failed
land reform programme, to endangering wildlife and
corruption.
There
is obvious environmental pollution and a high accident risk in the
tyrant’s
high speed daily escort of not less than 10 vehicles, including
close-security and 3 blacked-out Mercedes Benz saloons, one of them bearing
the ZIM1 number plate, 2 police motorcycles, two military jeeps with ten
armed soldiers and an ambulance.
Mugabe’s large carbon footprint is
noticeable from his dozen trips to
Singapore in the past year and his
characteristic delegations like the one
to the Earth Summit estimated at
over 60 officials, some of them suspected
of corruption.
Contrary to
Zanu-pf claims of success in its land invasions programme, top
ex-army
generals working in the ministry of Defence have told a
Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee that the controversial programme has
failed to benefit
war veterans.
Critics say Mugabe bought loyalty of a “new, well-connected
black elite” of
about 2 200 people which now controls nearly 40 percent of
the 14 million
hectares including wildlife conservancies and plantation land
seized from
white farmers
Before the Zanu-pf land occupations, there
were 640 ranches but only a
handful remain.
For example, according to
a Wikeleaks cable, conservancies were allegedly
“awarded without being
offered for public tender to allow regime insiders to
gain control of
concessions at below market prices.”
As a result, Cabinet Ministers and
other senior Zanu-pf officials were
reportedly making a killing from the
wildlife conservancies, according to a
cable released by Wikileaks. Among
those named was Dumiso Dabengwa, who has
since left Zanu-pf and now leader
of Zapu.
The cable claimed that the following Office of Foreign
Accountant Control
(OFAC) sanctioned individuals were known to have a stake
in a safari area
concession, safari operator and private land/private
hunting reserve:
Edward Chindori Chininga (Gwaai Valley Conservancy);
Jocelyn Chiwenga
(Matetsi Unit 6 Safari Area); Ignatius Chombo (Chiredzi
River Conservancy);
Dumiso Dabengwa (Gwaai Valley Conservancy); Joseph Made
(Gwaai Valley
Conservancy; Amos Midzi (Gwaai Valley Conservancy); Kembo
Mohadi (Gwaai
Valley Conservancy); Charles Utete (Gwaai Valley Conservancy);
Paradzai
Zimondi (Charara Safari Area); Lovemore Chihota (Matetsi Unit 7);
Thandi
Nkomo (Tuli Safari Area) sister of Louise Nkomo who is spouse of
Francis
Nhema, Environment Minister; Webster Shamu (Chirisa Safari Area and
51
percent stake in Famba Safaris). Webster Shamu’s wife also allegedly has
a
separate interest in Chete Safari but is not on the SDN list.
It is
worth noting that some of the named people may no longer be on the
sanctions
list, neither are they being linked to any criminal activity.
However there
are allegations of prevalent controversial hunting practices
of high quotas,
poaching and poor wildlife management on the conservancies
or private
land.
In the early years of independence, Mugabe was said to be a
committed
conservationist and even had his own herd of elephants in Hwange
National
Park but it is not clear what went wrong. In the 1980s he gave two
rhinos to
North Korea before they died only a few months after their
relocation,
according to The Standard.
Then a giraffe became the
first victim of Mugabe’s “Noah’s Ark” gift to
North Korea in May 2010 when
it died in an experiment described by experts
as “bizarre” involving pairs
of African animals, including elephants,
zebras, giraffes and antelopes that
were reportedly flown secretly to North
Korea, without a clear indication of
the benefit to Zimbabwe’s green
economy.
In November 2011, Mugabe
donated three elephants to China for what the
regime said was appreciation
for that country’s assistance to his wife’s
orphanage. It is not clear if
the animals Mugabe gave were his private
property.
In Chiredzi River
Conservancy, elephants and wildlife are under severe
threat from people who
were settled there but are relying on food aid
because the area is too hot
and the rainfall too low for crop farming.
Critics also cite Mugabe’s
poor hand of discipline on his loyalists. A cable
released by Wikileaks
linked four senior Zanu-pf officials to rumours about
rhino
poaching.
According to a US diplomatic cable dispatched on 14 December
2009, US
Ambassador Charles Ray named Environment Minister Francis Nhema,
Mines
Minister Obert Mpofu, Defence Forces Chief Constantine Chiwenga and
chief of
conservation in the Department of National Parks and Wildlife
Vitalis
Chadenga.
As long as Mugabe fails to curb corruption, improve
environmental management
and scale down on road and air travel, his
unsustainable lifestyle will
remain an economic liability, environmental
hazard and a safety risk for a
long time.
Clifford Chitupa Mashiri,
Political Analyst, London,
zimanalysis2009@gmail.com