Associated Press
By ANGUS SHAW – 3 hours ago
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Police
arrested a senior minister Friday after he
called President Robert Mugabe a
liar, the party of Zimbabwe's prime
minister said.
Hard-liners in
Mugabe's party accused Jameson Timba of insulting Mugabe, an
offense under
sweeping security laws, when he said Mugabe lied over the
outcome of a
recent regional summit on Zimbabwe's political and economic
crisis.
The former opposition party of Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said in a
statement police accused Timba of "undermining the
authority of the
president."
Earlier, police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena said he had no information on
possible charges.
Timba,
minister of state in Tsvangirai's office, was being held late Friday
at the
main Harare police station, said party official Nelson Chamisa.
Timba
attended the summit and contradicted Mugabe's account that regional
leaders
withdrew a damning report on the slow pace of reforms and continuing
political violence blamed on Mugabe's party.
Mugabe insisted the
Southern African Development Community, a regional
economic and political
bloc, cleared his party's name over allegations
reported to the grouping by
the chief Zimbabwe mediator, President Jacob
Zuma of South
Africa.
Timba gave his account of the summit at the same time as
Tsvangirai, who
told a rally in central Zimbabwe that Mugabe and his party
leaders lied over
the summit findings.
Tsvangirai was expected to
return to Harare on Friday from a meeting of
international jurists in
Spain.
Mugabe's party has also called for his arrest for insulting
Mugabe,
accusations usually applied to remarks made by political hecklers or
those
who curse Mugabe in bars or on buses. Those convicted have been fined
or
briefly jailed.
Tsvangirai's party described as "strange" that
Timba was arrested before the
weekend — a reference to a common police
practice of jailing suspects over
the weekend in filthy, overcrowded cells
in frigid winter conditions until
courts and judicial offices reopen on
Monday.
His arrest signaled another rift in the 28-month coalition formed
by
regional mediators after violent, disputed elections in
2008.
Tsvangirai's party said late Friday it "demands that the minister
is treated
with the respect he deserves" in accordance with the laws of the
country.
By Godfrey Marawanyika
(AFP) – 20 hours ago
HARARE — The Kimberley Process against "blood
diamonds" will allow Zimbabwe
to sell some diamonds from its controversial
Marange fields, in a decision
that left the watchdog sharply divided
Friday.
Right groups walked out of the Kimberley meeting Thursday in
Kinshasa, where
African countries, China and India supported the decision
that was opposed
by Western nations, rights groups and industry.
"We
have made a breakthrough," Zimbabwe mines minister Obert Mpofu told the
state-run Herald newspaper in Harare.
He said the Kimberley Process
had endorsed exports from the two mines
operated by Marange Resources and
Mbada Diamonds "with immediate effect
without supervision".
The
decision taken by Mathieu Yamba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who
holds Kimberley's rotating chair, appears to allow sales from the two firms
in Marange once a team of two monitors have signed off on the
deal.
Currently five licenced firms operate in Marange, but only three
are mining
at full throttle, while the other two say they have only found
minimal
reserves after exploration.
US-based diamond group Rapaport
Trade quickly advised members not to trade
in the Marange
gems.
"Marange goods (are) expected to be released shortly," Rapaport
said in an
advisory to members. "Responsible buyers should require supplier
guarantee
that they are not selling these diamonds to them."
Western
companies fear the bad press that comes with "blood diamonds", gems
whose
sale is used to finance armed conflicts.
Western nations and rights
groups have pushed for the Kimberley Process
(KP), originally meant to cut
off financing for brutal rebellions in Liberia
and Sierre Leone, to bar
trade in any diamonds tainted by violence and
abuses.
Companies in
China, India and the Middle East do not face the same public
pressure from
their customers and have proved more eager to tap into what
has been touted
as Africa's biggest diamond find of the decade.
Other African nations
have been reluctant to apply the same standard to a
sitting government as to
armed rebellions.
Outrage at the Kimberley decision prompted civil
society members of the
organisations, including resources watchdogs Global
Witness and Partnership
Africa Canada, to walk out of the meeting arguing
that the ruling undermines
the scheme's credibility.
Kimberley
decisions are supposed to be consensus based.
In a joint statement, the
civil society groups said Kimberley's decision
failed to protect civilians
living and working in Marange.
"Civil society organisations... are deeply
concerned that the scheme is not
meeting its most basic commitments," they
said. "It does not prevent
diamonds from fuelling violence and human rights
violations."
The Marange fields have been at the centre of a years-long
controversy over
abuses by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's
military.
Monitors say the military seized control of the fields in late
2008,
violently evicting tens of thousands of small miners and then beating
and
raping civilians to force them to mine the gems.
Zimbabwe
conducted a KP monitored sale last year, although move was opposed
by other
countries such as Canada and United States.
That sale raised $100 million
dollars according to government figures, after
selling 400,000 carats.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
24 June
2011
There is still confusion over Zimbabwe’s diamond trade status, amid
reports
that an ongoing stalemate within the trade watchdog, the Kimberley
Process
(KP), has not prevented the lifting of Zimbabwe’s trade
ban.
KP members met in the DRC this week, where Zimbabwe was top of the
agenda.
The meeting reportedly ended Thursday with no consensus from KP
members on
Zimbabwe’s future, with mainly western nations still concerned
about
conditions at the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
But the DRC’s
Mathieu Yamba, the current chairperson of the watchdog group,
late on
Thursday said sales would be allowed from two mines at the Chiadzwa
alluvial
fields, where gross human rights abuses have been reported since
2009. He
said a team of two monitors must still visit the mines to sign off
on the
sale.
Yamba earlier this year made a shock unilateral decision to allow
Zimbabwe
to resume trading, a move that has been strongly resisted by other
KP
members. KP decisions are meant to be made and implemented only after
consensus among members of the monitoring body. But it’s understood that
Yamba’s latest announcement has also been done without
consensus.
Civil society groups in the KP walked out of the negotiations
with Zimbabwe
on Thursday, saying human rights abuses have not been
addressed.
“We represent communities that have suffered from
diamond-fuelled violence,
and communities that hope to benefit from diamond
wealth,” said Aminata
Kelly-Lamin from the Network Movement for Justice and
Development in Sierra
Leone.
”We can no longer go back to these
people, look them in the eye and tell
them that the scheme is working to
protect their interests, when it is not,”
she added.
In a joint
statement the organisations said the KP’s dealings with Zimbabwe
fell short
of what is needed to protect civilians living and working in
Chiadzwa.
”(Chiadzwa) has been the scene of very serious human rights
violations over
the past three years. Yet the deal tabled did not credibly
address the
question of how to protect local NGOs monitoring and reporting
to the KP on
conditions in the area,” said Alfred Brownell from Green
Advocates, Liberia.
”Any new agreement that the KP signs up to regarding
Marange diamonds must
address directly key issues such as the involvement of
soldiers in diamond
mining, rampant smuggling and beatings by security
forces,” he said.
Political commentator Clifford Mashiri told SW Radio
Africa on Friday that
the civil society position is a sign that the KP has
lost all credibility.
“Unfortunately we see a situation where KP members
are giving in to ZANU PF.
Even the chairman (of the KP) is said to be a
friend and ally of Robert
Mugabe’s,” Mashiri said.
Meanwhile, US
based diamond trading network Rapaport has issued a trade
alert to its
members, warning that Chiadzwa diamonds will be on the market.
The alert
reads: “The Rapaport Group urges responsible buyers to require
supplier
guarantees that they are not buying (Chiadzwa) goods.”
http://www.radiovop.com
11 hours 19 minutes
ago
Harare, June 24, 2011- THE African Development Bank (AfDB) says
Zimbabwe
should come up with a proper and clear policy on the prospecting,
processing, and sale of diamonds as they have the potential of spurring the
country’s economy to greater heights.
Speaking at the launch of a new
economic forecast report in Harare
yesterday, AfDB resident representative
to Zimbabwe, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia
said the failure by government and other
stakeholders in the diamond sector
to come up with a clear policy could see
Zimbabwe miss out on maximizing
gains realized from diamonds.
“We
have seen countries squander the boom realised from minerals they
discover
in their countries,” said Bawumia.
“The whole issue has to be dealt with
in such a manner that there are clear
policies on the table for
all.
The problem that we have realised is that Zimbabwe is not able to
export all
the diamonds that it has been producing. This has had an effect
where the
earnings of the country do not reflect in the balance of payment
support,
clearance of debts with international financiers and many other
areas,”
Bawumia said.
He added: “If there is a clear policy on how to
deal with these diamonds
from prospecting, processing, and sale, I am sure
Zimbabwe might realise a
significant chunk of money from the diamonds and
this can actually spur the
country’s economy to higher
levels.”
According to the new AfDB report released Wednesday and entitled
African
Economic Outlook: - “Africa and Its Emerging Partners,” Zimbabwe is
expected
to realise a 7.8% economic growth.
The growth is expected to
be spurred by a stable macro-economic environment.
The report also
revealed that China had emerged as the biggest trade partner
for Africa,
trading volumes to the tune of US$93 billion.
http://online.wsj.com/
JUNE 24,
2011, 1:10 P.M. ET
By DEVON
MAYLIE
JOHANNESBURG—The Kimberley Process appears in disarray after the
president
of the global diamond monitoring group, at a key meeting, overrode
objections from the U.S. and others to allow exports of precious stones from
a controversial field in Zimbabwe.
After a weeklong meeting in
Kinshasa, Congo, Mathieu Yamba said he endorsed
a decision to allow exports
from two mining operations in the Zimbabwean
Marange diamond field with
immediate effect.
The Process had blocked exports from the region since
2009 over concerns
about violence taking place in the military-controlled
zone, with the
exception of two exports allowed in 2010 as a
one-off.
Mr. Yamba didn't provide any justification for the
decision.
The move has called into question the future of the group,
which is designed
on consensus, as it came despite a rejection from both
nonprofit groups and
some participating nations who are concerned about
human-rights abuses in
the Zimbabwean diamond fields.
"This could
rapidly lose its meaning," says Global Witness representative
Annie
Dunnebacke. "What we could see is a number of countries refuse Marange
diamonds because there isn't consensus."
Zimbabwe officials praised
the decision.
"Kinshasa has been a victory over the U.S. and its evil
partners who for
years have denied us the right to sell our diamonds and
improve the welfare
of our people," said Zimbabwe Minister of Mines Obert
Mpofu.
The president of the World Diamond Council Eli Izhakoff said that
the future
of the Process was at risk, and said he still hopes the
differences will be
resolved to reach a "fair and credible deal."
The
U.S. State Department said exports shouldn't be allowed until consensus
is
reached.
Whether to allow Zimbabwe to export diamonds from the area has
opened up the
divisions in the system. Countries such as South Africa have
publicly
supported Zimbabwe, saying it has complied with the rules of the
Kimberley
Process, mainly that the diamond industry isn't funding war. Other
countries
have wanted more focus placed on human rights
concerns.
Zimbabwe has responded to resistance to its exports from
countries such as
the U.S., Canada and European Union representatives by
calling them
colonialists, and it threatened to ship Marange diamonds
outside the
regulator. At one point during the Kinshasa meeting, requests to
speak by
the representatives from those three regions were ignored by the
chair.
"The United States believes that progress with respect to exports
from the
Marange area of Zimbabwe can occur solely through a mechanism
agreed to by
consensus among KP participants," the State Department
said.
The two mines that Yamba said will be allowed to export with
immediate
effect are Marange Resources, which is wholly owned by the
Zimbabwe
government, and Mbada Diamonds, a joint venture between the
Zimbabwe
government and Grandwell Holdings of South Africa.
Exports
from operations run by the other miners in the region, including
Chinese
firm Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (Group) Co., or Anjin, will
be
subject to a team of monitors, the statement said.
The Kimberley Process
was established in 2003 to prevent the diamond mining
industry from funding
war. How it is being applied today is creating sharp
division amongst the 45
member nations. A number of countries want the
broader issue of human rights
to be a factor in whether or a not a country
can export its diamonds, while
Zimbabwe has opposed this saying it purpose
was to prevent the diamond trade
from fueling war.
"Marange has been the scene of very serious human
rights violations over the
past three years. Yet the deal tabled didn't
credibly address the question
of how to protect local NGOs monitoring and
reporting to the Kimberley
Process on conditions in the area," said Alfred
Brownell from Green
Advocates, a nonprofit group from Liberia.
The
Kimberley Process did agree in a meeting in Moscow last year to allow
two
shipments of diamonds from that field that took place in August and
September of 2010. It was a special one-off deal brokered with the consent
of the civil-society groups that still wanted wider conditions negotiated
for a general lifting of the export ban. This most recent deal doesn't
restrict the number of shipments from the fields that have received the
green light.
—Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed to this
article.
http://af.reuters.com
Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:24am
GMT
By Jonny Hogg
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Zimbabwe has been given
the green light to sell
diamonds from its Marange diamond fields by the
industry's leading
certification system, but the decision did not have the
backing of all
members.
Participants of the Kimberley Process, which
aims to stop "conflict
diamonds" entering the market, met this week in
Democratic Republic of Congo
to discuss the Marange diamond fields but
remained divided over a final
statement.
Rights groups say abuses
have taken place against illegal miners, smuggling
is rife and some mines in
Marange remain in the hands of Zimbabwe's
military, charges denied by
Harare.
An inspection team from Congo, current chair of the Kimberley
Process, found
that Zimbabwe met the minimum necessary standards and a
statement on
Thursday said Zimbabwe could start selling diamonds from there
again, albeit
with some monitoring.
Zimbabwean Minister of Mines
Obert Mpofu said he had been seeking
unsupervised exports. "(But) we have no
choice but to accept. We want to be
treated like any other country, I'm
going to sell our diamonds now," he told
Reuters.
Last year, Zimbabwe
was allowed by the Kimberley Process to sell a small
amount of diamonds. But
some, including the United States, Canada and the
European Union, say human
rights issues remain.
Daniel Baer, deputy assistant secretary for human
rights and labour at the
U.S. State Department, said the statement did not
have the full backing of
Kimberley Process members.
"It was not a
consensus (decision), we've made that clear privately. We're
looking for a
way that Zimbabwean people can benefit from their natural
resources and we
can maintain the credibility of the Kimberley Process," he
said.
Representatives from civil society groups walked out of the
meeting before
the final statement, saying the values of the organisation
were being
undermined.
"KP has refused to uphold any human rights
standards, has not respected the
role of civil society and is allowing
participants who break the rules to go
free," said Alfred Lahai Brownell
from Green Advocates in Liberia.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
24 June
2011
The top legal minds from the Southern African Development Community
(SADC)
have all demanded compensation over the closure of the region’s human
rights
Tribunal, a move the judges have said was ‘illegal’.
In the
strongest criticism yet of the shock move by SADC leaders in May,
four
former Tribunal Judges have written a scathing letter to the regional
bloc,
blasting its decision to suspend the court. The Judges, drawn from
across
the region to head up the Tribunal, have all effectively been forced
out of
their positions by SADC’s unprecedented decision to close the court.
The
four judges, whose five-year term expired in August 2010, had remained
in
office, despite SADC last year deciding to review the role of the court.
This was the result of SADC’s apparent unwillingness to hold Zimbabwe to
account for refusing to honour the Tribunal’s 2008 rulings that Robert
Mugabe’s land grab was unlawful. A review was ordered instead, but the
Judges said they stayed put, due to the “legitimate and reasonable
expectation that, at the end of the initial independent review commissioned
by the SADC Heads of State, their terms of office would be
renewed.”
This expectation was then justified when that independent
review confirmed
that the Tribunal was properly established, and that its
rulings had
jurisdiction across the region, and that its protocol was in
accordance with
international law.
But instead of upholding the
review findings, a SADC Summit in May took the
decision to dissolve the
Tribunal for a further 12 months, dealing a
devastating blow to the rule of
law in the region. The move has been
described as ‘regressive’ because it
denies individual people access to
justice when they have no legal recourse
in their own countries.
The four judges seeking compensation are Justice
Ariranga G Pillay
(Mauritius) former president and member; Justice Rigoberto
Kambovo (Angola)
former member; Justice Onkemetse B Tshosa (Botswana) former
member; and
Justice Frederick Chomba (Zambia) former member.
Their
letter reads; “We consider, therefore, that Council and Summit should
face
up to the consequences of their action in the circumstances and pay
fair and
adequate compensation for the prejudice, both material and moral,
caused to
the President and members of the Tribunal whose term of office was
not
renewed.”
In their letter they say the decision to dissolve the court is
“clearly
illegal and ultra vires (invalid) because the Summit has no power
to
restrict the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, not the least because it is
itself subject to the Tribunal’s jurisdiction.”
The judges also
questioned why the SADC council of Justice Ministers
expressed concern about
the role and jurisdiction of the Tribunal, instead
of deciding the
appropriate action to take against Zimbabwe for
non-compliance of the
Tribunal’s judgments.
“We did not expect or foresee…the new drastic
action taken on political
grounds which at a stroke does away with the
intractable problem of taking
action against Zimbabwe,” the letter
reads.
The judges add; “So this extraordinary deed was done at the
expense of the
Tribunal and its judges who are both easily expendable, in
breach of the
principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of
law.”
The SADC Tribunal Rights Watch group has since endorsed the judges’
statement, echoing their concerns that the move sends “the worst possible
signal not only to the SADC region but also to potential investors, donors
and the international community at large: that the highest authorities of
SADC at best pay only lip service to the principles of human rights,
democracy and the rule of law and do not scrupulously adhere to
them.”
June 23rd, 2011
Click here to download the letter
This is a letter written by the (now former) President of the SADC Tribunal and three other (now former) members of the SADC Tribunal to the SADC Secretariat.
The SADC Tribunal was established in 1992 by Article 9 of the SADC Treaty as one of the institutions of SADC. The Summit of Heads of State or Government which is the Supreme Policy Institution of SADC pursuant to Article 4 (4) of the Protocol on Tribunal appointed the Members of the Tribunal during its Summit of Heads of State or Government held in Gaborone, Botswana on 18th August 2005. The inauguration of the Tribunal and the swearing in of the Members took place on 18th November 2005 in Windhoek, Namibia.
The letter addresses the issue of the SADC Summit’s illegal, arbitrary and mala fide (with or in bad faith) termination of the Tribunal and the terms of office of its justices instead of giving effect to its judgments against Zimbabwe. Indeed, the decision taken to effectively dissolve the SADC Tribunal bodes ill for the future of any legally and independently constituted regional judges, courts or tribunals.
The letter is a powerful denunciation of the Summit’s conduct and an important contemporary piece in the rule-of-law jigsaw puzzle of southern Africa.
Further information:
SADC TRIBUNAL RIGHTS WATCH
Media release: 24 June 2011
SADC
Tribunal Rights Watch supports Tribunal judges’ call for
compensation
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch supports the action taken by four
SADC Tribunal
judges to demand compensation following the illegal and
arbitrary decisions
taken by the SADC Council of Ministers and Summit Heads
of State and
Government on 20 May 2011 not to reappoint them or allow them
to remain in
office pending a further review in August 2012.
The
four judges, whose five-year term expired in August 2010, remained
in office
due to the “legitimate and reasonable expectation that, at the end
of the
initial independent review commissioned by the SADC Heads of State,
their
terms of office would be renewed.”
This expectation was justifiable
given that the consultants, WTI
Advisors Ltd, Geneva, an affiliate of the
World Trade Institute, confirmed
in their review report of February 2011
that the Tribunal was properly
established and that its protocol entered
into force in accordance with
international law.
Instead of
upholding the review findings however, the SADC Summit took
the decision on
May 20 to dissolve the Tribunal, dealing a devastating blow
to the rule of
law in the region because it denies individual people access
to justice when
they have no legal recourse in their own countries.
The four judges
seeking compensation are Justice Ariranga G Pillay
(Mauritius), former
president and member, Justice Rigoberto Kambovo
(Angola), former member,
Justice Onkemetse B Tshosa (Botswana), former
member, and Justice Frederick
Chomba (Zambia), former member.
As they point out in their letter to
Dr Topaz Augusto Salamao, executive
secretary of the SADC Secretariat, the
wording of the communiqué issued
after the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of
State and Government of SADC
demonstrates that the Tribunal has not only
been suspended but dissolved
altogether.
This decision, they
note, is “clearly illegal and ultra vires (invalid)
because the Summit has
no power to restrict the jurisdiction of the
Tribunal, not the least because
it is itself subject to the Tribunal’s
jurisdiction.”
While the
judges recognise that the Summit does ultimately have the
power to amend the
SADC Treaty and Protocol with respect to the Tribunal,
they stress that the
proper procedures have not yet been followed.
In their letter, the
judges find it inappropriate that the SADC
Ministers of Justice / Attorneys
Generals should express serious concern
regarding the scope and jurisdiction
of, and the law applied by the Tribunal
instead of deciding about the
appropriate action to take against Zimbabwe
for non-compliance of the
judgments of the Tribunal in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
The judgments
referred to are Campbell and Another v Republic of
Zimbabwe and Fick and
Another v Republic of Zimbabwe.
The first case was lodged with the
Tribunal by William Michael Campbell
of Mount Carmel Farm in the Chegutu
district of Zimbabwe. Subsequently 77
additional white commercial farmers
were authorised by the Tribunal to be
joined to this landmark case.
In the second case, the four applicants were Louis Fick, vice president
of
the Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Mike Campbell, Richard
Etheredge,
the Commercial Farmers’ Union and the Southern African Commercial
Farmers’
Alliance – Zimbabwe.
The Tribunal judges point out that the SADC
Ministers of
Justice/Attorneys General have “ducked and postponed a decision
to take
action against the Zimbabwe government – for reasons best known to
themselves.”
The Tribunal judges also express their frustration at
being unable,
since August 2010, to hear any of the pending cases “since
(the Tribunal)
was starved of funds and its requests for extra funding to
the SADC
Secretariat fell on deaf ears.”
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch
endorses the judges’ statement that the
drastic action taken at the expense
of the Tribunal and its judges is “in
breach of the principles of human
rights, democracy and the rule of law”
enshrined in the SADC Treaty.
Ironically, the SADC Council and Summit’s disregard for the SADC Treaty
and
Protocol mirrors the actions of Ian Smith’s post-UDI Rhodesian
Government
regarding the case of Stella Madzimbamuto v Lardner Burke (1966),
an
important and high profile human rights-based challenge.
Mrs
Madzimbamuto’s husband had been incarcerated under emergency powers
for
three months and was then kept behind bars while the constitution was
changed to allow him to be held longer in custody. It was the same
legislation that had been used to detain Robert Mugabe without trial.
When Mrs Madzimbamuto’s appeal failed in the Rhodesian courts, the case
was
led in the Privy Council of Britain, which declared the Rhodesian
Constitution illegal.
The Summit of the Heads of State or Government
of SADC, the presidents
of the 15 countries, including President Mugabe, the
Council of Ministers of
SADC and the Zimbabwe Government face a further
legal challenge.
In April, Jeremy Gauntlett, SC, a leading South African
advocate, filed
an urgent application asking for an order that ensures “the
(SADC) Tribunal
continues to function in all aspects as established by
Article 16 of the
SADC Treaty.”
The applicants were two elderly,
dispossessed Zimbabwean commercial
farmers, both of whom ran highly
successful farming enterprises and were
model employers, William Michael
Campbell of Mount Carmel farm, and Luke
Tembani of Minverwag farm in the
Nyazura district. Shortly after signing
the application, Mr Campbell passed
away due to the severe injuries
sustained during his abduction on 29 June
2008, where the Mugabe militia
tried to get him to withdraw the case.
Despite this, Mr Tembani’s resolve
has not wavered.
SADC Tribunal
Rights Watch endorses the view of the Tribunal judges that
the decisions
taken by the SADC Council and Summit “send the worst possible
signal not
only to the SADC region but also to potential investors, donors
and the
international community at large: that the highest authorities of
SADC at
best pay only lip service to the principles of human rights,
democracy and
the rule of law and do not scrupulously adhere to them.”
ENDS
Submitted by
/ For further information:
Ben Freeth - SADC Tribunal Rights Watch,
Zimbabwe
Cell: +263 773 929 138 E-mail: freeth@bsatt.com
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Tichaona sibanda
24
June 2011
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) have said police in Bulawayo
tried to
eliminate some of its members by using a deadly chemical to poison
them.
WOZA coordinator Jenni Williams told SW Radio Africa that eight of
their
members were taken ill this week after being exposed to a ‘noxious
substance’
believed to have been intentionally placed in a property they
own.
‘We are counting our lucky stars and are certainly happy to be alive
following this attempt to kill us using chemical warfare,’ Williams said,
adding the attempt was intended to cause ‘collateral damage’ to the pressure
group.
She revealed WOZA knows the identity of the culprit who placed
the poison
and hope one day he will stand trial for his actions. There are
suspicions
the poison was placed inside the chimney, as there were traces of
black ash
inside the lounge of the house.
The property in question
had been under police occupation for two weeks
after police raided it
looking for ‘subversive’ material. When the
authorities failed to find
anything significant to nail WOZA with, they went
about the property
planting bullets and subversive stuff in and outside the
house.
‘They
planted bullets in the car that I normally use and a document titled
main
agenda. They planted material which would have left me facing treason
charges,’ she said.
She added; ‘These are desperate attempts by a
desperate regime. We are not
in any way a violent group seeking regime
change but a pressure group
fighting for the rights of
Zimbabweans.’
Williams said they have been left in a state of shock
following the
poisoning incident. After the police were ordered off the
property by a High
Court Judge, WOZA believe the last one to leave closed
all the windows,
leaving the poison to accumulate inside.
‘When we
entered the house after they had left we were overcome by a strong
smell
which caused most of us to feel nauseous,’ Williams said.
She added that
one WOZA member was admitted to hospital and put on a drip,
while seven
others were treated and discharged. They all displayed symptoms
of headache,
dizziness, disorientation, weak limbs and nausea.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
Press statement Women of Zimbabwe Arise
(WOZA)
HIGH Court Judge Nicholas Mathonsi ruled on 20 June 2011 that
Zimbabwe
Republic Police (ZRP) officers who had forcefully occupied the
Suburbs WOZA
property should vacate and restore its full use to the
organisation. WOZA
monitored the situation and observed the police leave
after 5:30pm on the
21st June. A cream double came and dropped off a short
young officer known
to WOZA members and after sometime came back to collect
this detective in
plain clothes and 2 uniformed details. They left the keys
with the tenant
stating that police officers were no longer allowed in the
property.
WOZA leaders decided to enter the property and verify the state
it had been
left it and to remove the Ford pick-up that had been in the yard
since the
raid. A group of six entered the property through the kitchen door
and were
overcome by a strong smell in the kitchen which caused them to
start
gagging. The house was quickly closed and the vehicle was driven to a
place
of safety for the night. Three members immediately began to feel ill
with
dizziness; vomiting and diahorrea.
The next morning the vehicle was
offloaded and two bullets (38 mm
pistol) were discovered with a metal object
that looks like a bearing.
All six members then returned to the house and
in the company of Human
Rights lawyers and journalists determined that the
smell was still present
and further investigation throughout the house
revealed more 'planted'
material.
Inexplicably WOZA solidarity cards
received from Amnesty members worldwide
were removed out of their envelopes
and replaced with condoms, both male and
female.
A one page document
entitled 'Main Agenda' had been planted with other WOZA
material such as
democracy, constitution books that members conduct civic
education around.
Several copies of this publication were also placed in the
document folders
of members who had been in the house at the time of the
raid.
The
state of the house was clearly consistent with information previously
obtained on the first day that 20 to 30 plain clothes officers had searched
the house.
The fireplace in the lounge shows that something was put
up the chimney as
there was black ash all over the lounge floor.
At
first count many documents and two mobile phones, all food in the house
is
missing in defiance of the High court order that nothing must be
removed.
By 11am, members started to feel very ill and one member fainted
and had to
be rushed to hospital so the house was closed up once
again.
One member spent the day admitted and on a drip and seven other
members were
treated and discharged. When attending the private hospital,
one journalist
was also being attended with the same symptoms. Headache;
dizziness and
disorientation, weak limbs, nausea and diahorrea. The doctors
prescribed
antibiotics and anti-histamines for all those who
attended.
It should be noted that police officers chased away a lawyer
who attended
the scene of the raid within 15minutes and that our court
application was
taken on the basis that no legitimate search could be
conducted days after
the invasion and it was stated that there was real fear
that materials would
be 'planted'. Our worst fears were realised by the
bullets and other metal
objects, documents and condoms planted at the scene.
A letter of complaint
has been sent to the police and court.
We also
note that had our national coordinator Jenni Williams who is the
official
organisation representative had attended the house as was
constantly
demanded over the 12 day invasion period, she would be facing
fabricated
'Treason' charges. It was not out of guilt that Williams and
others left
through the back door on the day of the raid but out of knowing
the track
record of the police officers at the gate and years of members
being
harassed, threatened, abducted by Law and Order police officers namely
George Levison Ngwenya, Lindani Mpofu, Zenzo Moyo and female officer S. G.
Ndlovu, known as MaNdlo other whose surnames are Chikango, Nkomo,
Chuchu.
Despite knowing their track record, they have stooped even lower
than we
imagined by poisoning us which is chemical warfare and by
fabricating a
document.
However, their words ring true in the words
they wrote - "People of Zimbabwe
we have been oppressed for a long time
because we did not know about our
right and international obligations. We
have lost ubuntu. Dignity and
respect because of the type of leadership we
have.
They are corrupt. They are stealing from people to make themselves
rich. ..
We are tired of President Mugabe and he must go by all means. He is
full of
abuse of power with his ministers. He has no respect of law. (His
own laws
and International Laws).
They go on to confirm their deepest
desires by saying, "Everyone wants him
out. Let's all rise and remove him
now. When the date is fixed you will be
told. We will do it. Others have
done it in Libya, Sudan, Tunisia and
Egypt."
WOZA members stand
firmly behind their founder and national coordinator
Jenni Williams and
'praise the lord' for saving her from these fabricated
charges. Williams and
WOZA members are committed to a nonviolent struggle
and do not believe that
bullets can deliver dignity and true independence
for all Zimbabweans to
enjoy equally. We think that if anyone should be
facing Treason charges it
is the police officers named above who wrote the
'main agenda' document. But
as mothers of the nation and through mothers'
eyes we understand that they
are finally speaking the truth - we send them
our love and say keep speaking
out. We will expect their active support when
Zimbabweans do what they have
suggested in their Zimbabwe Republic Police
'main agenda'.
Supporting
documents are available on the website www.wozazimbabwe.org
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tererai Karimakwenda
24
June, 2011
The group of 20 MDC-T members, facing trumped up charges in
the murder case
of a Glen View policeman, will remain in police custody
another weekend
after a High Court judge issued no judgment on bail
Friday.
Last week High Court Judge Tendai Uchena reserved judgment on
their bail
application, saying he needed more time to go through the
arguments. Defence
lawyer Charles Kwaramba told SW Radio Africa on Friday
that he has checked
with the court everyday since and there has been no
communication from the
judge.
“A bail application by anyone, whether
it’s MDC or ZANU PF or whoever,
should be treated on an urgent basis because
it deals with the freedom of
people,” Kwaramba said, adding that he was “not
happy”.
The 20 activists were arrested in the aftermath of a violent
brawl that
killed policeman Petros Mutedza last month. The police claim he
was murdered
by MDC-T members who held a meeting at the local pub, a charge
denied by the
party. The police then descended on Glen View and randomly
arrested a total
of 24 MDC-T members.
This week lawyer Kwaramba
insisted there is proof that 19 out of the
remaining 20 accused were nowhere
near the scene of the incident. Their
families are being allowed access to
bring in food and clothing, and those
in need of medical assistance are
being treated once a week.
The mother of Cynthia Manjoro, a young woman
among the arrested MDC-T
members, broke down when asked what she would like
to say to Theresa Makone
and Kembo Mohadi, the two co-Home Affairs
Ministers. Speaking on SW Radio
Africa’s Question Time program she simply
said: “I want my daughter home.”
Mai Manjoro insisted Cynthia was not in
Glen View when the violence broke
out. She is also asthmatic and has a young
daughter that needs to be cared
for.
Senior police officials have
reportedly admitted to the family that they
know Cynthia is innocent. It is
believed her detention is being used as bait
in a police search for her
boyfriend.
In another case of false arrest, Washington Tirivangani, an
MDC-T councilor
from Makonde district in Mashonaland West, is still detained
without charge
one week after being picked up. Tirivangani was distributing
copies of MDC-T
newsletters at Chipfuwamiti Business Centre when police
detained him last
Friday.
The councilor is detained at Chemagamba
Police Station in Chinhoyi and was
due to appear in court on Thursday to
hear the charges against him. We were
unable to contact the MDC-T for an
update on his case.
Meanwhile the whereabouts of Tendai Chinyama, the
MDC-T organising secretary
for Kambuzuma district, remain unknown after he
was abducted by three armed
men on Wednesday afternoon. Chinyama was
abducted at the Harare City Council
Bishop Gaul Depot, and driven away in a
Mitsubishi L200 cream twin-cab. On
Friday the MDC-T said he had still not
been found.
The number of MDC-T officials and members in police detention
has continued
to rise, along with reports of abductions and harassment, at
the hands of
ZANU PF thugs and politicized security agents.
The
continued abuses by ZANU PF are a slap in the face of regional leaders
who
have called on the political parties to abide by the peaceful spirit of
the
GPA. And the MDC-T has also been criticized for continuing to conduct
business as usual, while its officials and members are under siege.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw/
By Thelma Chikwanha, Staff Writer
Friday, 24 June 2011 13:39
HARARE - Outraged Zimbabweans said yesterday that controversial
army general
Douglas Nyikayaramba’s consistently discordant utterances
served to confirm
that the country was now effectively run by a military
junta.
Nyikayaramba, whose latest anti-democratic vitriol included
describing Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as “a national security threat”,
confirmed what
Sadc, civil society, the international community, the MDCs
and Tsvangirai
himself have said over the past few months – that the
military, and not
President Robert Mugabe, was in charge of the
country.
Nyikayaramba, who was booted out of Copac this week, was quoted
in state
media yesterday saying that the country’s partisan securocrats,
the real
power behind Mugabe and Zanu PF, would leave no stone unturned to
ensure
that Zimbabwe’s frail octogenarian leader remained in
power.
The Daily News’s switchboard was inundated with calls from
Zimbabweans from
all walks of life yesterday who were shocked by
Nyikayaramba’s utterances,
with many of the callers saying the “treasonous”
remarks were an attempt to
subvert the will of the people in the event that
Mugabe lost another Army
comes under fire for political meddling election as
happened in March 2008.
Then, Mugabe, backed by the military, refused to
hand over power to his
conqueror after being trounced by Tsvangirai in polls
in which Nyikayaramba
was a senior electoral official. After a month of
holding on to results, the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced
that Tsvangirai had won but
did not garner enough votes to take over
presidency.
In his belligerent utterances yesterday, Nyikayaramba said
security forces
would not serve under Tsvangirai, describing the MDC leader
as a threat to
national security because he was allegedly a stooge of the
West.
“We will die for him (Mugabe) to make sure he remains in power. We
are
prepared to stand by our commander-in-chief. Soldiers are not going to
sit
back and watch while foreign forces want to attack us,” Nyikayaramba
said.
People who spoke to the Daily News last night said it was clear
that if the
wishes of the military were to prevail that there would not be
any need for
elections in the country as the military had once again
“declared the
winner”.
Leader of the smaller faction of the MDC,
Welshman Ncube said Nyikayaramba’s
utterances were a clear sign that there
was no democracy in the country.
“It’s a mockery of democracy. This is
exactly what Ian Smith was saying that
black people could only vote if they
were educated enough to know that they
must vote for a white man. People
should be given the right to vote for
candidates of their choice even if it
is the wrong choice. That is
democracy,” he said.
He said that the
military had a constitutional responsibility to serve
government and their
loyalty should lie with Zimbabwe and not with certain
political parties —
adding that the problem was that the country did not
have a professional
military.
“We have a military which is a military wing of a political
party. Inviting
the army to a political contestation will not help us,”
Ncube said.
Ncube went on to say Nyikayaramba’s utterances showed that
the military was
now so desperate that they were going directly to the media
to air their
concerns.
“The military itself no longer trusts Zanu PF
anymore. Issues like the
roadmap on security sector reforms should no longer
be dealt with by Zanu PF
but by the securocrats themselves. They should come
back to us and say these
are our fears,” Ncube said.
South
Africa-based analyst Shepherd Mntungwa said: “While Nyikayaramba’s
latest
utterances are shocking by any standard, they are also entirely
predictable
as service chiefs have been calling the shots in Zimbabwe for
the past 10
years. These guys can’t stand democracy as they know that would
be it for
Zanu PF, Mugabe and ultimately them too.
“There is now no doubt that
Mugabe, who is plagued by illness, advanced age
and possibly dementia, is
failing to control rogue elements within the top
echelons of the security
forces”.
Zimbabwe’s service chiefs comprise Zimbabwe Defence Forces
Commander General
Constantine Chiwenga, Police Commissioner General
Augustine Chihuri,
Zimbabwe National Army Commander Lieutenant General
Philip Sibanda,
Commissioner of Prisons Retired Major-General Paradzai
Zimondi and Air Force
Commander Air Marshal Perrance
Shiri.
University of Zimbabwe political scientist John Makumbe said the
statement
by Nyikayaramba was meant to cause alarm and despondency. He said
the
general’s utterances confirmed what Tsvangirai had said to Sadc that the
country was no longer under civilian control.
“The utterances show
that Mugabe is no longer in control and he has become a
puppet of the
military. They are simply sending a message that Mugabe and
Zanu PF are
finished and have to depend on soldiers to keep them in power,”
Makumbe
said.
He dismissed the statement that Tsvangirai was a threat to national
security
as utter rubbish because the MDC leader had been a victim of
state-sponsored
violence on many occasions.
“How can Tsvangirai be a
threat to national security when he has been
threatened and beaten up. He
has never threatened to overthrow the
government of Zimbabwe. The only
national security threat we witnessed was
in 2008 where soldiers and CIO
agents went about beating up innocent people,
forcing them to vote for
Mugabe,” Makumbe said.
However, Makumbe added, top security officials were
unpopular among junior
officers to the extent that they would never get
support on these kinds of
matters.
“They (top military brass) are
only a handful of them. The rest of the army
is not against the MDC. They
will not win a war against the people of the
country, Sadc, AU and the
international community,” he said.
He added that if such utterances had come
from someone other than the army
general, it would have been treated as
treason.
Another political analyst Eldred Masunungure said Nyikayaramba’s
utterances
were not new but were the latest instalment of what was first
said by
security chiefs in 2002.
He said that the only difference
this time around was that it was being said
more forcefully, a measure of
the desperation in those circles.
“Unfortunately, when the Brigadier said
Tsvangirai was a threat, he made a
political statement. It’s important to
stress that this school of thought
backdates to the armed struggle. What we
are seeing is a reincarnation of
the relationship between the military and
politics. We are talking about a
political military organisation whose model
was taken from the Chinese,”
Masunungure said.
He said the message
was that Zanu PF and security forces were inseparable.
“The Brigadier
should have been questioned whether the next elections will
exclude
presidential elections because it is (by his logic) a preserve of
the
incumbent forever.
“And this roadmap, is it only for local government or
parliamentary
elections?” Masunungure questioned.
A war veteran who
preferred anonymity said he had been disgusted by the
general’s utterances,
adding that the remarks were so “primitive and a
mockery of the struggle for
independence”.
He said some elements within the military were desperate
to remain in
control to continue looting and needed to realise that no
amount of
intimidation and coercion could stop the people’s will — as had
been
demonstrated during white minority rule.
“The utterances by this
poor fellow have exposed how bankrupt and desperate
some of our leaders in
Zanu PF have become. This is not what we fought for,”
he
said.
Besides benefitting from violent programmes such as the ongoing
land grabs,
service chiefs also enjoy many executive perks — such as
top-of-the-range
vehicles as well as huge allowances running into thousands
of dollars —
while the rank and file of the security forces earn an average
of $150 per
month.
Many service chiefs have also ventured into
dealing in gold and diamonds.
Responding to the claims by Nyikayaramba,
the main MDC formation said the
only threat to national security was the
general and those who had chosen
him as their spokesperson.
In a
statement released last night, the party which has been at the
receiving end
of state-sponsored violence since its formation over a decade
ago, said it
was convinced that the Brigadier spoke for himself and a few
rogue elements
and not the majority in the security sector.
“Zimbabweans no doubt
remember that the same state apparatus arrested,
unlawfully detained and
subjected President Tsvangirai to an embarrassingly
poorly stage-managed
treason trial in 2003.
“It is these same people that initiated an orgy of
violence that forced
President Tsvangirai out of the Presidential election
run-off in 2008 to
avert further bloodshed. Yet Nyikayaramba has the
audacity of labelling our
President a national security threat!” the MDC-T
said.
In an interview with the Daily News, MDC secretary for defence
Giles
Mutsekwa said his party enjoyed the support of many army and police
officers.
“During my time as the Home Affairs Minister, I toured the
country’s police
stations and camps which gave me the impression that the
junior police
officers do support us and believe in democracy. They openly
told me that
they wanted to see the top service chiefs retiring as they no
longer had
confidence in them,” Mutsekwa said.
As expected, Defence
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa said Nyikayaramba’s
statements were his personal
views.
http://mg.co.za/
RAY NDLOVU Jun 24 2011
09:42
United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray -- loathed
by President
Robert Mugabe and his party as an agent of imperialism -- has
expressed deep
concerns about reports that the Zimbabwe military could seize
power after
the death of the octogenarian.
"The army generals are
entitled to their own political views, just like
everyone else, but once
they start dabbling in politics it becomes a recipe
for disorder. Their role
is to defend a nation and not a political party. If
anyone wants to become a
politician, the honorable thing to do is to take
off their uniform and
become a politician."
Ray was reacting to a report earlier this month in
the weekly Independent
newspaper that army commander Constantine Chiwenga
was likely to succeed
Mugabe because infighting between Zanu-PF's factions
had fuelled the party's
instability and could lead to the military's top
brass usurping power.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to the ambassador at
the large Bulawayo Club
building, seen as the last bastion of the city's
white elite, after he had
addressed about 200 youths at the Young Leader's
Forum.
The youths evidently did not share Zanu-PF's antagonism towards
the
ambassador; many scurried for quick photo shoots with him and warm
handshakes were exchanged.
The 66-year-old Ray, a former major in the
US Army, voiced concern over
recent media reports that pointed out the
military's deep involvement in the
country's political system, which had led
to the stonewalling of democratic
reforms.
A recent report by the
Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe, titled "The Military
Factor in Zimbabwe's
Political and Electoral Affairs", highlighted the
military's complex
political dealings in Zimbabwe, including its control of
key economic
resources and parastatals.
Ray pointed out that this involvement further
complicated Zimbabwe's
protracted political crisis and made it more
difficult to bring to an end.
"I don't think simply removing an
individual -- Mugabe -- is going to change
and solve all the country's
problems. Building a country is not just one
man's job," he said. "There is
a diverse relationship of different
sectors -- the army, business community
and private sector must all be
considered too."
CONTINUES
BELOW
Asked whether he foresaw the possibility of North African-style
democracy
protests led by youths weary of Zimbabwe's continued political
stalemate,
Ray said it "could not be ruled out".
"The Arab Spring is
an indicator to governments of what can happen when they
lose contact with
their people and ignore the discontent coming from the
young. Having been
among Zimbabwe's youth, I have sensed a disconnect with
the
government.
"The youth here are bright, energetic and have a broad world
view. They also
share concerns with the youth in North Africa, such as
unemployment. There
is definitely a risk of some form of discontent should
youths continue to be
marginalised."
The United Nations estimates
that 90% of Zimbabweans are formally
unemployed, with hundreds of thousands
crossing into neighbouring Botswana
and South Africa in search of
jobs.
Ray also commented on the increasingly tough stance on political
violence in
Zimbabwe that has been taken by the Southern African Development
Community.
"SADC is now taking a stand for a credible process rather than
against an
individual. They have set out the parameters for such a process
and now all
the parties in Zimbabwe must play by the rules. The election
road map that
SADC is drawing will ensure that the people's vote is
respected."
At a troika summit in Livingstone, Zambia, in March, SADC
leaders called for
an end to violence and Zanu-PF-led crackdowns on members
of opposition
parties.
http://www.businessday.co.za
Despite calls for a strike this week by
the Progressive Teachers’ Union of
Zimbabwe, to force the government to
award a 150% salary increase to public
servants, many teachers yesterday
went to work — exposing the deep divisions
among unions.
RAY
NDLOVU
Published: 2011/06/24 08:34:09 AM
BULAWAYO — Despite calls for
a strike this week by the Progressive Teachers’
Union of Zimbabwe, to force
the government to award a 150% salary increase
to public servants, many
teachers yesterday went to work — exposing the deep
divisions among
unions.
Rival Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union (Zimta) has opted to give salary
negotiations
with the government a chance. "Zimta is opposed to the use of
industrial
action as a resolution mechanism to the salary campaign," its
CEO, Sifiso
Ndlovu, said yesterday.
Zimbabwe’s teachers and public
service workers are demanding monthly
salaries of $500, on a par with the
poverty datum line, although it is
likely the lowest-paid worker would earn
$250 and the highest $400, up from
$150.
Teachers went on strike in
January but their demands were rejected by
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who
said Zimbabwe could not sustain salary
rises.
A pledge was then made
by the government to review the salaries of public
servants this
month.
But the April increases in the salaries and allowances of cabinet
ministers
and members of parliament by as much as 200%, ahead of the slated
review,
have stoked fresh tension among public servants. Cabinet ministers
now earn
at least $2000 a month and the treasury recently secured 140 new
luxury
vehicles for them.
The issue has provided fresh fodder for
politicking in the unity government.
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu
(PF) party have cashed in on the row
and accused the Movement for Democratic
Change’s Mr Biti of personally
blocking salary hikes.
Mr Biti
replied: "The problem is this issue has been politicised, but the
truth is I
don’t have the money to increase the salaries. The economy is
just not
performing well."
An International Monetary Fund delegation in Harare
last week said the
country could not afford salary increases as it was
weighed down by a
bloated wage bill full of ghost workers .
http://mg.co.za
JASON MOYO HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Jun 24 2011
10:03
On the northern verges of Harare the massive new military
college is
taking shape, a monument to China's tightening hold on
Zimbabwe.
The complex is also a symbol of growing hostility from
Zimbabwe's labour
force towards Chinese employers. It is being built using a
controversial
Chinese loan and its workers have gone on strike to protest
against beatings
by their bosses and low pay.
Zimbabwe will receive
$98-million for the college's construction, which is
being undertaken by a
Chinese contractor. The loan will be repaid over 20
years through earnings
from the controversial Chiadzwa diamond fields that
are being mined by Anjin
Investments, another Chinese firm.
The college is a sprawling, heavily
guarded complex with high security walls
that run for a kilometre through
what used to be farmland. Two weeks ago
workers at the site went on strike,
alleging that the Chinese managers of
Anhui Foreign Economic Construction
Company were guilty of assaulting them
and demanding an increase on their $4
daily wage.
Chinese businessmen are targeting Zimbabwe's minerals, but
many more are
arriving to run businesses in the construction, manufacturing
and retail
sectors. In Harare, Chinese restaurants are all the rage, packing
in
customers drawn to their exotic health foods and herbal
teas.
China Garden, a suburban Chinese restaurant with brightly coloured
golden
dragons at the entrance, is hugely popular with the middle classes
and
diplomats.
But last month cook Patrick Makaza quit his job at the
restaurant, saying he
had been beaten by his bosses. "Working for these men
from the East is hell
on earth," he told the independent daily newspaper
NewsDay. "Most of us are
suffering in silence, but I have decided I can only
go so far and will go no
further."
The restaurant has declined to
comment.
The hostility of local workers and traders -- even among Zanu-PF
supporters -- is mounting as the number of Chinese businessmen in the
country grows. In Chiadzwa, the Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, a
Zanu-PF ally, has taken Anjin investments to court to recover allowances it
said are owed to workers.
David Chapfika, a Zanu-PF member who heads
the government board responsible
for implementing controversial empowerment
laws, has also complained about
Chinese nationals' involvement in small
businesses.
"I know the Chinese are our friends, but I'm sorry to say
that when we talk
of the indigenisation programme we can't ignore the fact
that they have
ventured into business activities that can easily be done by
locals."
The trade unions are pushing for action. The Zimbabwe
Construction and
Allied Trade Workers' Union, for example, has petitioned
the labour ministry
to end the abuses. "Workers continue to endure various
forms of physical
torture at the hands of these Chinese employers right
under the noses of the
authorities," a union spokesperson said.
"One
of the most disturbing developments is that most of the Chinese
employers
openly boast that they have government protection and so nothing
can be done
to them. This clearly indicates that the issue has more serious
political
connotations than we can imagine."
National Mine Workers' Union of
Zimbabwe secretary Cotten Ndlovu told the
Mail & Guardian that workers
at Chinese mines were often forced to work long
hours for low pay and with
inadequate protective clothing.
"We have been to Chinese-owned mines in
the Midlands province. The
conditions we found there are unimaginable. The
safety of workers is at
stake and this is a great concern to us," Ndlovu
said.
He added that the union had often been denied entry to the premises
of
Chinese mines.
The authorities appear willing to turn a blind eye
-- in part, to protect
their economic interests. Deputy Prime Minister
Arthur Mutambara has said
Zimbabwe cannot afford to ignore the Asian
economic powerhouse.
Yet the Chinese themselves seem increasingly
concerned. Last week, the
Chinese Communist Party sent a delegation led by
the chair of the party's
overseas Chinese affairs committee, Yu Linxiang, to
investigate how Chinese
nationals are relating to locals.
"Our
delegation came to Zimbabwe to meet the Chinese people in Zimbabwe and
particularly [to] learn how they live and how they deal with the Zimbabwean
people," Yu said after meeting MPs.
Festus Dumbu, a Movement for
Democratic Change MP who opposed the loan for
the military college in
Parliament, said abuses were being ignored to
appease China. "Have the
Chinese become immune to the Zimbabwe law to the
extent that we have never
had any Chinese who have been arrested for assault
or abuse of workers?" he
said.
Trade between the two countries stood at $550-million last year,
according
to the Chinese consulate. Reports suggest China plans up to
$10-billion in
investments over the next five years, more than the amounts
pledged by any
other state.
http://www.swradioafrica.com/
By Lance Guma
24 June
2011
For nearly a year notorious war vets leader Jabulani Sibanda has
been camped
in the Masvingo province, rounding up and terrorizing civil
servants,
traditional leaders and villagers. His endless rallies and
meetings
disguised as history lessons, had one clear message, vote for ZANU
PF or
face violent retribution.
But his campaign dubbed, “Operation
Kubudirana Pachena," has backfired
spectacularly, with Sibanda only
succeeding in making ZANU PF even more
unpopular. People from all walks of
life in the province have been unanimous
in condemning his activities. So
worried are ZANU PF by this negative
reaction, the Masvingo Province of the
party resolved to expel him from the
area.
Confirmation of this came
from the state media of all places. They quoted
the provincial executive as
saying Sibanda was now “dabbling in political
activities that were now
compromising the party.” ZANU PF provincial
chairman Lovemore Matuke, is
quoted saying the party's provincial
co-coordinating committee had passed a
resolution ordering the war vets
leader stop his campaigns.
Matuke is
adamant Sibanda has over-stayed his welcome in the province and
suggested he
should “stop all his activities and go to other provinces.” He
went on to
say; "We felt that he had overstayed in Masvingo judging by what
he was
doing and considering that he was in Masvingo since October last year
and
wanted to be here until August this year, it means that he wanted to
spend a
year here and ZANU PF has ten political provinces so it means that
for him
to cover all the other provinces he would need ten years, so we felt
that it
will be better if he goes to other provinces.”
A defiant Sibanda
meanwhile is reported to have told the state owned Herald
newspaper; “I have
not been aware of that and am still not aware. Anyway who
is Matuke? Who is
he?” In another report Sibanda has vowed that he will not
be removed by
resolutions being passed by his perceived enemies.
"Leaving Masvingo,
going where? Unless they kill me and put me in a coffin,
I will not leave
this beautiful province," he is reported as saying.
Meantime Sibanda has
instructed chiefs in the province to compile a list of
all MDC-T supporters
in Masvingo. He has issued threats that ZANU PF will
deal with them at the
appropriate time.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/
24/06/2011 00:00:00
by
Staff Reporter
AS MANY as 20 Bulawayo death row prisoners have been
unable to benefit from
their automatic right to appeal since 2005 – because
the courts have a
shortage of transcribers.
Transcribers record all
court proceedings in written form to be used as
references by judges and
lawyers. Without a record of proceedings, lawyers
cannot mount
appeals.
Charles Nyatanga, the registrar of the High Court, described the
development
as a “crisis” on Friday.
“At some stage, I had to request
that the records be brought to Harare so
that they are transcribed before
being sent back to Bulawayo for
processing,” Nyatanga said, speaking by
telephone from Harare.
“In some instances, we have to rely on transcribers
attached to the
magistrates’ courts.”
The Deputy Registrar of the
High Court in Bulawayo, Njabulo Mabuya, said no
Supreme Court appeals by
death row inmates had been heard since 2005.
The Supreme Court comes to
Bulawayo thrice a year and also deals with cases
from the Gweru and Hwange
Circuit Courts.
Transcribers are a special category of judicial officers
who transcribe
court records from tapes. Usually, they require legal
knowledge and a high
degree of command of the English
language.
Mabuya said: “I personally took 13 records to Harare on June 8
this year,
where they were transcribed. I brought them back so that the
lawyers could
inspect the records and satisfy themselves that they are a
true reflection
of what transpired during the trials.
“After being
bound and certified by the lawyers, the records will be sent
back to Harare
so that they can be allocated dates for hearings. It’s a
time-consuming
process.”
Mabuya said the Justice Ministry had promised to recruit new
transcribers,
but for the time being almost two dozen prisoners sentenced to
death
continue to be denied a chance to prove their
innocence.
Zimbabwe’s court system has been creaking, along with most
government
departments, over the last decade after a staff exodus due to an
unprecedented economic crisis which, however, appears at an end following
the formation of a power sharing government in February 2009.
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Roadwin Chirara, Business Writer
Friday, 24
June 2011 18:11
HARARE - Information and Communications Technology
(ICT) ministry is set to
review the cost model of local data provision
following the recent
connection of the country to the Seacom cable through
Mozambique.
“Very soon internet users are going to see a significant
reduction in cost
of using the internet as cost of traffic have also been
reduced after
linking with the cable,” ICT minister Nelson Chamisa
said.
Chamisa said Zimbabwe had struck a deal with Telecomunicacoes de
Mocambique
(TDM) of Maputo to link the country to the 13 700 kilometre long
cable
running along Africa's east coast.
As part of the deal, the
Mozambique telecoms parastatal will allow Zimbabwe
to use the fibre optic
network to move its data through to the cable.
“All the work was finished
early this year. What we have not done is the
commissioning but traffic is
already passing through that route,” Chamisa
said.
He said the
project had cost the government $6, 3 million.
“The project was fully
funded by the government as it aims to create a
national backbone and we
intend to have the whole country wired by 2015,”the
ICT minister
said.
Seacom chief executive Brian Herlihy said the agreement with TDM
will also
allow other landlocked countries to benefit while also giving the
company
another route to link with South Africa and landlocked
Malawi.
"This agreement with TDM demonstrates our commitment to partner
with
established players to improve the range of service to customers whilst
continuously expanding the reach of Seacom's low-cost services into
land-locked countries across the region," Brian Herlihy said.
In
March this year, PowerTel became the first local telecoms operator to
connect to high speed submarine optic fibre cable through Botswana
Telecommunications Corporation (BTC).
The agreement allows PowerTel
to get a direct international undersea
connectivity.
Econet Wireless
in partnership with Liquid Telecommunications (Liquid)
Holdings Limited this
year also announced its completion of an international
fibre extension,
linking its network with the Seacom cable system landing in
South
Africa.
Liquid a 49 percent shareholder in Ecoweb provided a more than
US$70 million
loan facility part of which was used in the countrywide fibre
optic network
installation.
Local data providers are currently
charging an average price of $0,15 per
mega bite with surge in users
following the launch of mobile broadband.
New undersea cables along both
sides of the continent have expanded the
capacity of Africa's fibre optic
cable connections almost 300-fold since
2009, when the continent relied
mainly on slow satellite connections
http://www.timeslive.co.za/
Ben Trovato | 19 June, 2011 03:46
DEAR
GIDEON,
With the top job at the International Monetary Fund up for grabs
- thanks to
the quintessentially Gallic behaviour of Dominique
Strauss-Kahn't-take-no-for-an-answer - I hope you have applied for the
position. I can't think of a better candidate.
Did you know your name
means "Destroyer" in Hebrew? Your mother must have
been a visionary, because
you have done a magnificent job of destroying
Zimbabwe's economy. Please
don't take this as criticism. African economies
function much like fynbos -
every few years they have to be razed to the
ground so they may flourish
anew.
Your name will go down in history as the man who, in the space of a
few
weeks, turned every Zimbabwean into a billionaire. You should have been
hailed as a hero. Instead, people blamed you for everything from food and
fuel shortages to covertly debriefing President Mugabe's enchanting wife,
Grace. Hell, who cares what they think! Let them eat snake. The important
thing is that you weren't shoved up against a wall and shot 13 times in the
head. A very forgiving man, that Mr Mugabe.
When your critics ask you
about hyperinflation, tell them it is no more
serious than hypertension.
Give them some aspirin and tell them to get lots
of rest. Preferably in a
homeless shelter in Joburg.
There's one thing I need to say, though. I
think you should bring the Zim
dollar back. What's the point of being
governor of the Reserve Bank if
anyone can wander across your border with a
bag of Israeli shekels or a
pocketful of Polish zlotys and buy whatever they
like? A country without its
own currency is like a Porsche without petrol.
It might look good standing
there, but it's not going to get very
far.
God-forsaken hellholes like Guam and Kiribati don't have their own
currency.
Do you want to be known as the Guam of Africa?
I hear you
want to introduce something called a "gold-backed Zimbabwe
dollar". To be
honest, I'm not sure it would work. A friend of mine from
Harare, Somnolent
Molokele, said he thought the temptation to scrape off the
gold and throw
the note away would be too much for most people. Nice idea,
though. Just a
bit impractical for a country like yours.
A last word of advice: stop
ending your policy statements to parliament with
the words, "In the Lord's
hands, I entrust this monetary policy framework
for our economic
turnaround." Your country's recent history suggests that
either God doesn't
have much of a head for figures or he's on sabbatical.
For now, though,
you're doing a splendid job of propping up President
Mugabe. At 107 years
old, he needs all the propping up he can get. Without
your help, the country
would fall into the hands of the MDC and, before you
know it, everyone would
be singing God Save the Queen and whacking off to
pictures of the Duchess of
Cambridge.
The IMF job really should be yours. Instead of lending money
to developing
countries through the usual bullying, bribery and blackmail,
you could
simply give them rolls of paper and cheap printing presses, and
tell them to
make as much money as they damned well pleased. That's the
solution to world
poverty.
Bugger! I've just heard that a woman by
the name of Christine Lagarde has
her beady eyes on the post. Sacré bleu!
Can you believe they would give the
job to another French person?
I
have an idea. Former Zimbabwean central intelligence agent Phillip "Kim"
Machemedze is living it up in London after being granted asylum. As you
know, Phillip was among your fearless leader's favourite torturers, and I'm
sure he still has his tools with him. Send him across to Paris for a quiet
word with Christine. Once she is able to talk again, it's my bet she will
step down.
Good luck, or, as they say in your country, God help us
all.
Ben Trovato
Solidarity Peace Trust SPT-Zimbabwe Update No.3. June 2011: Beyond
Livingstone By Brian Raftopoulos - Director of Research and Advocacy, Solidarity Peace Trust The excitement over the resolutions of the SADC Troika meeting in Livingstone, Zambia, at the end of March 2011, was largely focused on the stronger stance taken by the organ over the abuses of the Mugabe regime, and more particularly the continued obstacles placed by the latter over the implementation of the GPA. In effect however, the Livingstone resolutions brought into effect the major strength of the SADC mediation, which has been to lock the Mugabe regime into structures of accountability. Whatever the weaknesses of the GPA, and there are many, it has forced Zanu PF into closer accountability for its behavior at different levels including cabinet, parliament, JOMIC, the constitutional reform process, SADC, the AU and its relations with the West.For authoritarian parties like Zanu PF, all these forms of having to answer to various fora are anathema, as they provide varying means of eroding the monopoly of power that the regime has become completely accustomed to. The accumulation of small reforms and the slow dispersal of power provide a major challenge for such structures of authoritarian power, as they provide the possibility of a cumulative momentum of dissent that can be very difficult to control. When combined to the major challenge of the succession problem in Zanu PF, now an very urgent issue in the light of Mugabe's waning health, these factors have pushed Zanu PF into emergency election mode. The challenge for Zanu PF since the signing of the GPA, and more urgently following the Livingstone meeting, has been to decide on what strategies to deploy in the next election campaign. The party's recidivist impulse to return to violence is clearly very strong, particularly given the increasing control of the party and the state by the securocrats. Moreover the reports of various human rights organization have shown growing evidence of the low level, pre-election intimidation emerging in the country designed to pre-empt any forms of opposition activity in the public sphere, with the specter of North Africa clearly haunting the calculations of the military-political elite. The Zanu PF election campaign message has concentrated on the dual issue of the indigenization and anti-sanctions campaign, with the connection being that both are designed, in the party's view, to confront the continuing threats to national sovereignty. However whereas in the period between 2000-2008 the message around the land had some purchase both in the country and the region, the recent attempt to reload the message in a different form, has proved much more hollow both nationally and regionally. The stern rebuke of SADC at the Livingstone meeting placed the issue of Zanu PF violence and coercion at the forefront of its resolutions. Moreover the resolution to appoint a team of officials to work with JOMIC to ensure the monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the GPA, was a direct challenge to the Mugabe regime's persistent rhetoric on national sovereignty. The frantic, angry and strategically stupid attacks by Zanu PF spokespersons to the Livingstone position, SADC, and the South African President, indicates the very real threat that the SADC position holds for Mugabe's party. The once taken- for- granted regional solidarity against the West is no longer so easily available, and at a stroke a key part of the Zanu PF strategy over the last decade has been placed under threat. The vehement lobbying by Zanu PF representatives ahead of the full SADC summit in Sandton on the 11-12 June was another indication of the panic that the recent SADC position has caused in Zanu PF. Moreover the resolutions of the Sandton meeting, notwithstanding the claims of the state media in Zimbabwe, largely confirmed the resolutions of the Livingstone summit, even if the language of the communiqué was calibrated in more moderate terms. More particularly the SADC summit in South Africa confirmed the Livingstone resolutions through the facilitator's situation report, confirmation of the decision to appoint SADC representatives to join the JOMIC team, and through its commitment to the election roadmap. Both the Livingstone and Sandton meetings thus confirmed the central purpose of the mediation and the GPA, namely the establishment of conditions for generally acceptable elections in order to settle the central problem of state legitimacy in Zimbabwe. Notwithstanding the continuities in the objectives of the mediation from the Mbeki to the Zuma administrations, the one major difference between the two, as South African analyst Siphamandla Zondi has noted, has been that while Mbeki's emphasis was placed on building consensus amongst the primary actors in Zimbabwe, Zuma has complemented this by his concentration on building a stronger regional consensus against the obstructive behavior of the Mugabe regime. In particular Zuma has developed closer relations with the Angolan president who always felt slighted and marginalized by former President Mbeki. Zuma's strategy was also determined by Zanu PF's attempts to undermine the ANC in the region in order to ensure the solidarity of the region. There has now been a shift in this regional balance that has also been affected by the more effective lobbying in SADC by both MDCs, and the greater respect they have earned in the region since 2008. The fact that the West was largely marginalized in the SADC mediation, also allowed Zuma to build a more effective African consensus to take a stronger stand against the abuses of Zanu PF. This factor is one of the key differences with the current situation in North Africa, the Middle East and particularly Libya, where Western intervention, both diplomatic and military, has clouded the issues much more for the opposition. Western intervention in the Middle East is of course dictated by the major issue of oil reserves, its strategic military positions in the region, and the position of Israel, all of which dwarf the West's interests in democratization in this part of the world. The Mugabe message peddlers have not been slow to point out the duplicity of the West on the democratic agenda, but Zanu PF's depravity on this issue has removed the sting from any critique it once offered in this area. Progressive anti-imperialism abroad cannot long outlast vicious repressive practices at home. SADC and the democratic forces in Zimbabwe must now move to ensure a broad consensus with the West in implementing all key aspects of the GPA, with the regional body leading the construction of such a consensus. Zanu PF must be left with little doubt that any further attempts to forestall the GPA through violence and repression, will be met with a more unified condemnation that will leave little room for continued unilateral actions. Such pressure may also lead to more realistic political discussions between the parties that will deal not only with elections processes but the possibility of transfer of power, in which area both the mediation and the GPA has been very weak. Thus the role of the security sector has to be dealt with by SADC, even if it is unrealistic to expect major security sector reform in the pre-election period. Such reforms are a long-term process, but at the minimum the role of the security sector in the elections process and pre-election violence, must be placed under close enough scrutiny to make it a non-viable election strategy for Zanu PF.
For further information, please contact Selvan Chetty - Deputy Director, Solidarity Peace Trust Email: selvan@solidaritypeacetrust.org Tel: +27 (39) 682 5869 Address: Suite 4 : |
THE MDC USA YOUTH ASSEMBLY continues to
note the impertinent disregard and
abuse of the rule of law by the forces of
darkness within what is supposed
to be a professional Zimbabwe Republic
Police in dealing with MDC activists.
Today our entire MDC Youth leadership
led by the patriotic Youth Chairman
Solomon Madzore is in hiding despite
committing no crime. Their perceived
crime per ZANU PF controlled police
modus operandi is that they belong to a
different political dispensation.
This is a clear violation of their human
rights and MDC USA Youth demand
that the persecution of the MDC National
Youth Leadership and any other
innocent Zimbabwean should stop.
While our comrades continue to be
hounded, jailed and tortured, we have no
record in recent memory of any Zanu
PF activists who have been arrested for
their gross acts of violence against
our members, let alone tried and
convicted. Yet evidence is abounds of
continued repression of innocent MDC
members 2years after the formation of
the inclusive government. Eleven years
after the brutal murder of Talent
Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya, CIO agent
Joseph Mwale continues to walk the
streets scot free. Hundreds more of Zanu
PF militia who maimed and killed
during the 2008 discredited one-man
election runoff continue to strike fear
and terrorize our people in the
rural areas.
We also note with
disgust the insolence displayed by Brigadier General
Nyikayaramba, whose
statements show deliberate attempts by the service
chiefs to subvert the
will of the people enshrined in the constitution to
elect the leadership of
their choice. It is interesting to note that even
before the election
roadmap has been implemented, the self appointed
spokesperson for the
security forces is already declaring that “they [army]
will do all in their
power to keep President Mugabe in power”. This is a
slap in the face of
political chameleon Jonathan Moyo and those Zanu PF
propagandists who
shouted and made noise pre Sandton Summit that there was
no need for
security sector reform. What is clear from Nyikayaramba’s
statements is that
if the status quo is not changed, the security sector,
and not Zimbabweans,
has the final say on who will lead the country. This is
June 2008 déjà
vu-the only difference being that this time they have come
out in the open
and told us beforehand.
The continued harassment, intimidation, wanton
arrests, and torture of MDC
leaders and members of the civic society over
trumped up charges is
precisely why SADC should be part of the GPA’s Joint
Monitoring and
Implementation Committee [JOMIC]. SADC should help put a stop
to all these
human rights violations. All the well documented violations by
the police
force and the army form the basis why MDC is calling for security
sector
reform and depoliticizing of the police and army before national
elections
can be held. MDC USA Youth reiterates that demand- ‘THERE SHOULD
BE NO
NATIONAL ELECTIONS UNTIL THE LIKES OF BRIGADIER NYIKAYARAMBA ARE PUT
BACK IN
THE BARRACKS WHERE THEY BELONG’.
MDC USA Youth also demands
that nothing but a full implementation of the
electoral roadmap and new
constitution will reign in this madness and the
stupidity that is reigning
supreme in our armed forces leadership. We
continue to add our voice to
calls for security sector reform and ask SADC
and the facilitator to take
serious note of these statements, actions and
continued repression that
seeks to deny us the chance to express ourselves
through the
ballot.
Together, united, winning, voting for real change!!
MDC USA Youth
Assembly
www.mdc-usa.org
Friday June 24th 2011-06-24
There must
be something about Zanu PF membership that softens the brain;
that’s the
conclusion I’ve reached after a week of nonsensical statements
from Zanu PF
loyalists. Speaking about the fact that his ‘perfect’ electoral
roll shows
41.119 registered centenarians Tobiwa Mudede reacted to criticism
by asking,
“You don’t want these people to attain 100 years. You don’t want
them to be
alive?” There was no sensible attempt to answer the criticism or
explain how
in a country where life expectancy is under 40 years there could
possibly be
that huge number of centenarians on the voters’ roll. Instead,
Mudede
replies with the suggestion that anyone who questions his figures
must be
some kind of monster who wishes all these supposed centenarians
dead.
Even the man at the helm of the former ruling party is not
averse to making
statements that do not bare close logical analysis. Robert
Mugabe is hailed
as a great intellect and a man who claims to have several
university degrees
but that does not stop him making outrageous claims on
the part of Zanu PF.
Speaking on arrival in Malaysia on his latest trip to
the Far East, Mugabe
said he could prove that his ‘land reform’ had been a
success by the
increase in food production on the invaded farms. I was in
Zimbabwe just
four months ago and the one thing that struck me when I went
into the local
supermarket was the overwhelming predominance of South
African goods. Basic
food stuffs which had once all been produced in
Zimbabwe are now imported
from South Africa. The truth is that Zimbabwe is
no longer self-sufficient
in food; maize, sugar and flour are all imported,
not to mention all the
other products that were once produced locally such
as soap powder,
toothpaste and toilet paper. Even the chicken and eggs which
are produced
locally are fed with imported feed. So how can the president
claim that his
land reform has been such a success if Zimbabwe is importing
just about
everything from South Africa? Loyalty to the former ruling party
really does
seem to lower one’s capacity for logical thinking.
This
week, SW Radio showed the video coverage of meetings held in rural
areas
such as Mudzi and what struck me was the fact that there was very
little
difference between the nonsense spoken by the so-called political
elite in
the towns and the rubbish coming out of the mouths of Zanu
loyalists in the
villages. When an MP, Edward Raradza, tells his rural
constituents, “Nothing
can stop us doing what we want,” no one questions the
logic or even the
legality of what he says. And in Mudzi the Zanu PF speaker
defends the
party’s right to use violence on the grounds that Jesus used
violence in the
Temple!
The top prize for nonsensical statements this week goes to
Brigadier General
Nyikayaramba. Whether he speaks for himself alone or for
the clique of
military chiefs who have vowed never to serve under Morgan
Tsvangirai is not
clear but the Brigadier’s statements reveal a decided lack
of common sense.
Responding to Morgan Tsvangirai’s challenge to the security
chiefs to “take
off your uniforms” and join the political sphere, the
Brigadier General
replies that the military and Zanu PF are inseparable and
the Prime Minister
is a security threat because he takes orders from
foreigners who seek to
effect illegal regime change. Nyikayaramba offers no
evidence whatsoever for
this claim but says “ We will die for him (Mugabe)
to make sure he remains
in power…the current situation requires the generals
to remain in uniform”
he maintains. With the fabulous wealth of the diamonds
on offer to the
military and political elite, one can’t help wondering if
it’s greed rather
than political loyalty that’s really keeping the likes of
Nyikayaramba on
the scene. Far from being the means of rescuing Zimbabwe
from economic and
political collapse, the Chiadzwa diamonds have prolonged
the country’s agony
and brought nothing but further suffering to the
ordinary people. No amount
of Zanu PF nonsense can conceal that
reality.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH